Cyxtera SmartCabs: Solving Networking’s Innovation Puzzle

Cyxtera Technologies • March 10, 2022 • 3 minute read

Hybrid IT, Enterprise Bare Metal, Colocation in Business

Innovation can be likened to the process of putting together a jigsaw puzzle. You know there are numerous pieces that need to be sorted, and while it will be clear where some of them go, others will confound you to almost the end. And, at some point, you will decide that a piece has gone missing, never to be found when in reality, it’s been there all along, staring you in the face. The key to putting all the pieces together is to have an open mind, to be the kind of person who is constantly looking for solutions, and to be willing to try numerous configurations until hitting upon the right one.

At Cyxtera we’re problem-solvers. Throw down a challenge, and we’ll jump in and solve it. Show us a puzzle missing a piece, and if we can’t find it, we’ll make something that works just as well, if not better. In fact, it was that desire to fill a gap, to solve the puzzle if you will, that was behind the creation of Cyxtera SmartCabs.

In the beginning

Colocation hasn’t changed much since its inception. What has changed is the move to the cloud, and how for many enterprises, the public cloud has become the compute method of choice. While the benefits of the public cloud are many–flexible cost structures, fast time to market, and scalability, among them–it’s not always an option. Regulatory issues and egregious egress costs are enough to make some companies stay away altogether. This has left many organizations out in the cold, wanting the speed, scalability, and convenience of the public cloud, but unable to access it.

SmartCabs solves each of these problems, offering up truly customizable colocation on-demand that lets customers get up and running as fast as possible with the fewest possible touch points, so that process of getting started takes days rather than months. Previously, if a customer needed to quickly deploy into the data center, they had to spin up a full network environment–in every environment–regardless of their true capacity needs. And they still needed someone to configure that equipment, which in itself presented yet another challenge, especially for smaller shops, start-ups, and any organization feeling the staffing crisis during the pandemic.

SmartCabs: Solving for a wide variety of business needs

While SmartCabs is ideally suited to smaller organizations who need colocation as they scale, it can add value to businesses of all types and sizes. For example, while large enterprises may continue to need their own network equipment, there are times when they need to quickly spin up capacity in a new market. In these instances, leveraging SmartCabs allows them to expand quickly and instantly connect to the information, partners, and applications they need to grow their businesses.

SmartCabs also liberates companies looking to deploy in various locations with the same footprint. As Cyxtera expands the SmartCabs offering to even more Digital Exchange-enabled markets, customers will be able to order their hardware from their preferred vendors, have it delivered to their chosen Cyxtera data center(s) and be up and running in no time. When enterprises combine this new technology with the chance to leverage our on-site technicians via Cyxtera’s Remote Hands service, they now have the ability to build a data center from scratch, all on-demand and –without ever needing to step foot into the facility! With a few clicks they’ll be able to duplicate their efforts across multiple locations. SmartCabs can do all the heavy lifting, with network configuration set up directly in the Cyxtera Portal.

Acting as a real-time bridge between physical and virtual environments, SmartCabs provides customers with everything they need in an easy-to-consume bundle that includes space, power, and networking, all accessible via an intuitive self-service portal. In-rack networking, powered by Cyxtera’s Digital Exchange, eliminates the need for customers to deploy their own network switches. Automatic, real-time access into both the virtual and physical ecosystems of service providers means customers can leverage operational flexibility to spin up as-a-Service solutions in record time. What’s more, customers can easily layer on any additional service sold throughout the data center, such as Enterprise Bare Metal, IP Connect, as well as add additional storage as needed.

Innovation doesn’t have to result in something off the wall. Sometimes, it’s simply looking at something from a different perspective to find the missing piece of the puzzle. From our inception, Cyxtera has provided customers who otherwise lacked networking with the ability to deploy equipment with the least pain and suffering. We’ve more than succeeded with SmartCabs, as our satisfied customers will attest. There’s nothing puzzling about that.

This is the first in a series of posts that will examine the features and benefits of Cyxtera SmartCabs.

Views and opinions expressed in our blog posts are those of the employees who made them and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Company. A reader should not unduly rely on any statements made therein.