About Smart Hands

Equinix Smart Hands is an around-the-clock, on-site operational support service for the management, installation, and troubleshooting of your data center equipment. Smart Hands technicians can performs tasks on your behalf within your cage or cabinet.

Video – Smart Hands Spotlight

Smart Hands is an on-site tech support service at the Equinix IBX data centers. Through Smart Hands, our technical personnel can assist you with installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of your equipment at the IBX.

With Smart Hands, you have access to our trained IBX technicians, who can:

  • Provide on-site technical assistance and troubleshooting.

  • Perform equipment installations.

  • Remove and install interface cards.

  • Test carrier circuits.

  • Take inventory of equipment, take digital photos, and record serial numbers.

  • Perform a power cycle on a router, server, or switch; soft-boot a server.

  • Move equipment within your space and cabinets.

  • Install ladder racking, pre-wire patch panels and equipment.

  • Assemble, install, and maintain cabling.

  • Verify cable integrity on installed media.

  • Provide visual verifications.

  • Install, replace, or remove equipment (router, switch card, disk drive, memory, etc.).

  • Assist with conference room and AV equipment setup.

  • Add, remove, or verify a demarcation.

  • Assist with unboxing of equipment or shipment of equipment.

  • Extend patch cables from the patch panel to the equipment.

Note: Service requests can be:

  • submitted on an ad hoc basis, or scheduled in advance

  • set to occur one time, or on a recurring schedule

Tip: For a full list of services, see Smart Hands Order Types.

Standard Turnaround Times

The normal turnaround time for Smart Hands services varies by IBX:

  • For 24/7 IBX sites, the turnaround time is 24 clock hours.

  • For non-24/7 IBX sites, the turnaround time is 3 days.

Important: There are exceptions that might affect the turnaround time, such as when a physical or power audit is being performed, or during large rack-and-stack installations. Note that complex Smart Hands requests may also take longer than the standard turnaround time.

Tip: To see the normal operation times for a specific IBX, refer to IBX List / Smart Hands Availability.

COVID-19 Impact on Turnaround Times

Many IBX data centers are currently operating under regional COVID-19 policies. These policies might affect the turnaround time for Smart Hands requests:

  • For 24/7 IBX sites, the turnaround time is 36 clock hours.

  • For non-24/7 IBX sites, the turnaround time is 4.5 business days.

Expedited Services

Most services can be expedited for an additional fee (subject to IBX resource availability). Expedite requests must be submitted at least 2 hours before the required start time. An expedite fee is added to your order if you:

  • Choose the Expedited option when scheduling your request.

    or

  • Schedule your request earlier than the current turnaround time for the IBX.

  • You can communicate directly with the on-site technician, via video conferencing (if available at your IBX) or via messaging.

  • You can view various reports about your equipment (cage access logs, order history, maintenance notifications, and more).

  • Support plans are available, to help you save money over ad hoc services.