When it comes to digital transformations, does an enterprise choose single cloud or on-premises servers? What about a hybrid multicloud solution where data and applications are stored and deployed in their best respective environments? A place where your computing infrastructure is running at its highest peak and operational level?

Global colocation data center company Equinix Inc. just expanded its partnership with VMware to accelerate enterprise hybrid cloud transformations. The partnership includes developing solutions to help enterprises accelerate hybrid cloud transformations based on VMware Cloud on Dell EMC within Equinix International Business Exchange data centers.

“I think the big driving force probably in digital transformation today is really the cloud,” said Charles Meyers (pictured), chief executive office and president of Equinix. “What was announced today was a preferred partnership between ourselves and VMware and also Dell to deliver the VMC on Dell offering, which is really aimed at the sort of hybrid-cloud requirements for enterprises.”

Meyers spoke with Stu Miniman (@stu) and John Walls (@JohnWalls21), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the VMworld event in San Francisco. They discussed Equinix’s place in the market, hybrid cloud solutions, edge computing, and security (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

[Editor’s note: The following answers have been condensed for clarity.]

Walls: The whole multicloud, hybrid cloud movement; what’s going on now with the enterprise. What’s your perspective on where we are in that shift or that transformation, and what’s driving it? What’s creating all the buzz?  

Meyers: What I think is happening is that [digital transformation] is becoming a board-level priority for companies. They can’t afford to ignore it. Digital is changing the basis for competitive advantage in most industries around the globe. And I think the big driving force in digital transformation today is really the cloud.

Miniman: There’s only a handful of companies in the world that are good at [building data centers], and I believe your company’s one of those. So give us a little bit of that broad look, because from those big public clouds they’re spending tens of billions of dollars a year to build those out.

Meyers: Of course, the [big public] clouds … build some of their own [data centers], and they do buy from third parties as well. But what they really want is not so much a data center; they want to connect to somebody specifically. And that’s where Equinix is really different. You know, [we have] 10,000 customers inside of our digital ecosystems, and we operate in 200 data centers across 52 markets around the world … and it’s that interconnection piece that really differentiates Equinix from the rest.

Walls: You’ve had some expansion news in terms of partnerships with VMware that you announced. Talk about that a little bit if you will?

Meyers: Customers who have a set of workloads, some of which may be very well suited to the public cloud, and they may go either native on AWS or with a VMC on AWS type solution. But a lot of times they, for a variety of reasons, are looking for a hybrid cloud solution. And they want to implement that on private infrastructure, but they would like to get the benefits of the cloud. And so, that’s what the solution is all about, and we’re the preferred global colocated partner for that solution.  

Miniman: Your company must have a really good view of things going from the public cloud to [the] racks, to moving sideways. What are you seeing? What’s the trend along that line? 

Meyers: Being able to deploy infrastructure in a way that has greater agility and flexibility is really critically important. And that’s why putting private infrastructure immediately proximate to the cloud, being able to get the performance benefits, the economic benefits of that are really key.

Miniman: How about edge computing? 

Meyers: We actually talk about Equinix as really the best manifestation of the digital edge today. When you look at people who want to place infrastructure in a geographically distributed way, and they want to interconnect it with clouds, with networks, with other members of their supply chain, Equinix is really the best solution for that in many, many cases. 

I think when you’re hearing edge today, people are talking about an even more geographically distributed footprint that is out closer to IoT sensors or closer to customer endpoints and those kinds of things. But what we’re seeing today is the current digital edge at Equinix works very well for most of these edge-related applications. 

Miniman: How about security? How does Equinix make sure that it’s a trusted partner in that whole security story?  

Meyers: The biggest responsibility we have specifically is physical security, because people are trusting their infrastructure to reside in one of our facilities and it needs to be physically secure. Then there’s virtual or digital security, and what we’re doing there is really cultivating the ecosystem of providers. And we have a number of really sophisticated customers who are delivering cloud-based security solutions; VMware is one example of that. 

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the VMworld event. (* Disclosure: Equinix Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Equinix nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE