Equinix Application Platform

The Equinix Application Platform (EQAP) is a container runtime and orchestration platform based on Kubernetes, containers and Linux. This platform provides an ecosystem that simplifies the execution of applications in multiple clouds. It can be connected to the continuous delivery pipeline of DevOps teams for continuous development and seamless deployment of microservices and cloud native applications. EQAP is also suitable to run legacy applications repackaged in containers.

The use of containers is the next step in virtualization. Combined with the orchestration provided by Kubernetes, these allow you to virtualize on the level of the operating system instead of on the hardware stack. Containers are user-friendly, lightweight and portable. They efficiently start and share resources of the operating system, using only a fraction of the memory. The portability of Kubernetes allows flexible deployment of the containers as required on different operating systems on public, private and hybrid clouds.

The EQAP is a Platform as a Service, and is an integral part of the Equinix Managed Services portfolio. This service uses Equinix Managed Private Cloud (MPC) compute resources.

Advantages of the EQAP service

• Platform Equinix: EQAP is located on Platform Equinix in the Netherlands. Platform Equinix is the complete offering of hosting and connectivity services in Equinix data centers that form the heart of the internet with Equinix Fabric and its direct links to internet exchanges and public clouds. The applications and data are located safely in the Netherlands with the best options for connectivity to users, business partners and customers.

• Security: EQAP was designed “security first”. It uses a minimal, immutable, thoroughly hardened operating system (Talos Linux), and it continuously tested for conformance on hardening standards. Furthermore, all access and procedures surrounding the product are in conformance with strict security standards.

  Reliability and continuity: A containerized application EQAP is typically a service-based architecture where performance and issues are isolated per container. Each service can be limited to specific resources, and containers can start and stop independently of each other, without the risk of the entire application failing. The underlying operating system has a small footprint and needs maintenance less often.

• Speed, flexibility and efficiency: Use of containers and EQAP leads to flexible development and production environments. With low overhead and efficient resource management, you can quickly adapt to ever-changing market demands.

Management and support

Equinix Managed Services is responsible for:

• Technical management of the EQAP components.

• Support and incident handling on EQAP components and the underlying MPC resources.

• Using this platform to perform and develop managed services, and the necessary applications and tooling.

The EQAP platform is provisioned by Equinix in consultation with the user. You can start using an EQAP platform with the support of Equinix Managed Services.

Operation

EQAP is a runtime platform deployed on MPC. The runtime platform consists of a Kubernetes cluster on which the user deploys their applications, services and data. The diagram below shows the service (red rectangle), and the applications and data of a user.

Customers can run their containers on the Application Platform using Kubernetes for orchestration.

Within a Kubernetes cluster, you can create your own resources (e.g. pods, services and namespaces). When desired, applications can be scaled for increased redundancy and/or capacity. You can define namespaces within Kubernetes to separate environments or tenants. This also allows you to assign permissions for different user groups. You can also assign resource quotas.

The basic setup of the container runtime platform consists of three control plane nodes, and a number of worker nodes in the size chosen by the customer. The platform size can later be altered upon request.

Services

The standard offering of EQAP is bundled with several services that enhance the platform’s ease of use. These services as listed below, are managed by Equinix and can be used on a self-service basis.

• Persistence: The platform supplied from MPC has a (standard) persistent storage provisioner based on NFS presented as storage classes. The customer can choose as many classes as they like, where each class has its own characteristics (size and quality).

• TCP Ingress: The platform bundles a dynamic TCP reverse proxy, that can be configured using in-cluster Kubernetes resources.

• Authentication federation: The platform can be federated to an existing external authentication source (oIDC or SAML) or use simple token authentication.

• Monitoring: Equinix monitors the platform using in-cluster agents.

• Policy agent: Equinix protects important moving parts behind the scenes using a policy agent, to make sure Kubernetes core services are not affected by human errors.

Relations and dependencies

The EQAP service has relations with, among others, Equinix Managed Private Cloud (MPC) Compute, Storage and Networking, the standard Infrastructure as a Service, which forms the basis of the Application Platform.