SALES PLAYBOOK

SOFTWARE AS A
SERVICE (SAAS)
SALES PLAYBOOK

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Software as a Service
Overview...................................................................................................... 3
SaaS Subsegments...................................................................................... 4
Equinix Value Props..................................................................................... 5
Personas...................................................................................................... 7
Competitors.................................................................................................. 8
Case Studies.............................................................................................. 11
Objection Handling..................................................................................... 12
Qualifying Questions.................................................................................. 14
Sales Tools................................................................................................. 15

TABLE OF CONTENTS | 2

SAAS OVERVIEW

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a software distribution model in which applications are

hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over the Internet or
a private network. SaaS is becoming an increasingly prevalent delivery model as underlying
technologies that support web services and service-oriented architecture (SOA) mature.
Meanwhile, international broadband service is rapidly becoming increasingly available to
support global user access.
Why SaaS customers are important for Equinix:

SaaS is the fastest growing segment within the cloud ecosystem. With countless
innovative and entrepreneurial business models for SaaS, this segment requires flexibility
to scale and ecosystem diversity.

SaaS development is synergistic to two important initiatives: first, our hybrid cloud
solutions combine self-hosting with third party hosting; and second, our retail colocation
business models start with relatively small footprints that can easily scale as needed.

SaaS is the most visible layer to attract enterprise customers. SaaS apps arent just
a nice-to-have. According to an InformationWeek Analytics survey of 281 business
technologists, three-fourths (75%) of companies using SaaS consider application services
critically important to their organizations and approximately one-third (33%) describe
their SaaS apps as mission critical.

Saas OVERVIEW | 3

SAAS SUBSEGMENTS

Accounting and Finance: Includes all finance related products

Analytics and Business Intelligence: Includes reporting and big data solutions

Collaboration and Social: Includes storage, communications, social analytics

Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Includes all sales, marketing, and

configure price quote (CPQ) solutions

Enterprise Resource Management (ERP): Includes supply chain, project planning,

business process and procurement solutions

eCommerice: Includes retail solutions

Human Capital Management (HCM): Includes talent management, benefits and payroll
solutions

Platform: Includes development tools, security, integration and workflow solutions

Security: Includes firewall, antivirus, antispyware and encryption solutions

Vertical Solutions: Includes legal, small business management, healthcare,

construction, shipping and other niche solutions

saas Subsegments | 4

EQUINIX VALUE PROPS

For Saas companies looking to assemble a best-of-breed solution, Equinix offers unparalleled
choices and very competitive rates of cloud components across the broadest range of
networks with extensive compute and storage service providers (IaaS), cloud management
platforms, and on site IT services providing complete flexibility to optimize services across
infinite combinations of network routes.
Cost-efficient, high-performance direct connectivity

Direct connections to Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure accelerates deployment
of hybrid clouds or migration of data and services from public to private and/or hybrid
cloud solutions.

Access to 450+ cloud providers for complementary services.

Connection to new services or switching to new providers as business needs change.

Direct connection to multiple cloud platforms across multiple regions.

Broad choice of worldwide locations places you closer to your customers

100 IBXs in 32 top markets on five continents

Geographic coverage reaches the worlds top markets within 20 milliseconds.

Ready to support SaaS industrys rapid growth: weve invested $4.4 billion in our global
interconnection platform since 2007.

All the services, tools and expertise to assemble a best-of-breed solutions

Our unmatched variety of network service providers compete for your business: 975+
networks on Platform Equinix.

Over 600 IT service providers (e.g., cloud management, storage and compute) are on
Platform Equinix and available to rapidly launch your cloud solution.

Equinix Global Solutions Architects advise on data center best practices and location
optimization.

Equinix Smart Hands services provide remote management and support.

Proximity to end-users
Locating services closer to end-users may be the single-most powerful strategy for SaaS
providers. With the constant need to boost application performance in order to sustain
business growth and drive revenue, our global reach provides necessary proximity.

equinix value props | 5

EQUINIX VALUE PROPS (CONT.)

Proximity to providers / hosting companies / cloud service brokers

For the various infrastructure partners necessary for successful services, proximity is also an
important factor in success by providing:

Best user performance

Ease of applications management

Broader avenues to distribute services

Flexibility for different operating models

As usage grows, SaaS providers reach a tipping point where public clouds become too
inflexible to sustain long-term growth. SaaS leaders can slash 46% or more from cloud costs
by shifting workloads from public clouds to their own clouds hosted in multi-tenant data
centers.

equinix value props (Cont.) | 6

PERSONAS

Business Decision Maker ---> Software Architects ---> Network Architects

The recommended approach should begin with the business decision maker and then
progress to working with software architects and eventually the network architects. We
first need to understand their target customer and how their customers benefit from their
offering. By understanding the customer category, their primary geographic locations, and
the anticipated service needs, we can then respond with performance hubs and scalable
connectivity options. Then, we work on the hybrid architecture and provide guidance
on potential enablers, managed services, and hosting providers. Finally, we proceed to
influencing the network personnel with proof-of-concept and trial testing.

Business Decision Maker: responsible for driving sales, identifying new revenue and
channels, and increasing operating margins of software services on a global basis.

Software Architect: responsible for software design, identifying new technology that
ensures availability and low latency, which translates to optimal end user experience.

Network Architects: responsible for scaling infrastructure and addressing trends of

software delivery on a global scale while improving performance and managing cost.

PERSONAS | 7

COMPETITORS

Multi-Tenant Data Center Competitors

Global
Digital Realty Trust (DRT)
While DRT is a REIT who traditionally only served customers above a certain size
(1/4-1/2MW), theyre now moving down market into retail colocation. Thus, we are
seeing them compete on more deals today. In an effort to further penetrate the retail
market, they are very active in the Open-IX initiative and have been aggressively
trying to bolster their peering/interconnection capabilities. What complicates the
relationship is that we are both competitors and customers. We lease certain IBX
sites from DRT where it makes more sense than to build our own.

Americas
Switch SuperNAP
Switchs main drawback is that they currently only have a single site in Las Vegas. Its
a large site they acquired in a liquidation sale. They are well aware of this limitation
and are building facilities on the East coast and abroad.

NTT/RagingWire
RagingWire is a relative newcomer to the Ashburn colocation market situated within
minutes of our DC campus. With only one other location in Sacramento CA, they
are aggressive on price allowing them to win deals with customers like Twitter.
Recently, NTT acquired an 80% stake in RagingWire, bolstering NTTs North America
presence. With NTTs financial backing, RagingWire has potential to become a
potent competitor.

Telx
Telx is a private company providing premium network-neutral colocation space with
a dense interconnection ecosystem. They have a strategic agreement with DLR to
maintain and operate key Meet-Me-Rooms within Digital Realtys most interconnected
buildings. Telx competes with Equinix in many of the Tier I/II markets except for
Ashburn. And, they are expanding with recent data center openings in NY/NJ,
Seattle, and Portland. They are actively marketing to cloud and enterprise customers
calling their data centers Cloud Connections Centers. Internationally, Telx does
not have a footprint outside of North America, but theyve partnered with Interxion to
provide international presence.

CoreSite
CoreSite is a public REIT primarily focused in North America with presence in key
interconnection buildings such as One Wilshire in Los Angeles and 32 Avenue of the

COMPETITORS | 8

COMPETITORS (CONT.)

Americas in New York. CoreSite sells both retail and wholesale product. This allows
them to cater to a wide variety of clients. They offer attractive pricing especially for
marquee customers. Internally, theres been executive turnover at the top levels of
the company. CoreSites COO who led the companys cloud strategy and efforts with
the CoreSite Open Cloud Exchange recently left the company.

Europe, Middle East and Africa

Interxion
Interxion is a regional data center provider competing in all of Equinixs European
metros (as well as a number of others). They lack footprint in Italy (where we have
access to a partner facility) and the UAE. Outside of our footprint they are also
present in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Spain and Sweden. While most of
these are tier 2 markets, a number of larger cloud providers have made Ireland their
home to take advantage of favorable tax rates and over a decade of significant IT
experience. Interxion is competitive on price but lacks global footprint requiring them
to leverage partnerships with the likes of Telx to reach other markets.

DuPont Fabros
DuPont Fabros is a wholesale provider that builds and operates massive scale data
centers. Key customers include Microsoft, Yahoo!, Facebook, and Google. They are
active in 4 North American markets (CH, DC, NY/NJ, SV) and have plans to build a
new facility in Ashburn next to our campus. They offer low-cost lease terms to large
enterprises that need lots of space quickly. They are also trying to attract network
carriers by offering free interconnection and waiving access fees. They have joined
the Open-IX as a way to break into the interconnection market.

TelecityGroup
Telecity is a regional provider present in all of our European countries except
Switzerland and the UAE. While they lack our global footprint, they are competitive on
price and maintain significant European presence:

Asia Pacific
Nippon Telegraph & Telephone (NTT)
NTT is both a very large customer and a competitor who also maintains a global
footprint. They offer colocation, managed and cloud services, and have recently been
acquiring companies like DimensionData (also a customer) and RagingWire to build
their portfolio.

COMPETITORS (CONT.) | 9

COMPETITORS (CONT.)

Other Competitors

Network Service Providers

NSP bundle hosting and connectivity to attract the SaaS customer. To counteract, we
should sell the value of scalability and expansion seamlessly at multiple markets. We
likely should bring in a partner along to provide managed services.

Application Hosting Providers

Hosting providers will likely offer managed services to attract SaaS providers. When
customers have challenges in a self-host or hybrid model, then we have an advantage
by recommending a hosting provider that is already at our facility and can help grow
incremental footprint.

Cloud Providers
This is likely the strongest category of competition including AWS and Azure. We should
focus on our hybrid cloud architecture by illustrating how a SaaS business, operating with
just cloud providers, becomes more expensive at scale. SaaS customers should plan and
invest in architecture as part of their long-term strategy.

Most of the non-colo competitors mentioned above are key customers of Equinix since we
help enable their business. Their focus is providing end-to-end IT solutions. Colocation is only
a means to an end for these providers
For the latest competitive research data, please visit The Competitive Intelligence page on
Sales Intelligence:
http://sharepoint.equinix.com/sites/si/Competitive/Pages/Global-Competitive-Intel.aspx
If you are interested in receiving the daily bulletin Global Market Watch containing
competitive and industry information, please send a note to help@equinix.com and ask to be
added to the globalmarketwatch alias.

competitors (Cont.) | 10

CASE STUDIES

Badgeville Case Study

As the global leader in gamification,Badgevilles The Behavior Platform enables innovative
businesses to measure and influence user behavior. Their need for real-time performance
and along with the rapid growth of their business necessitated the migration from and
expanding and expensive public cloud footprint to a hybrid solution. Their move to Equinix
increased performance by 40% and also reduced costs by 40%.

Box Case Study

This secure content sharing platform originally hosted their own data center in California, but
the rapid adoption of their services required a top-tier global solution. Box turned to Platform
Equinix to provide the foundational components for Box Accelerator a global data transfer
network that increased performance speed by 60%.

case studies | 11

OBJECTIONS HANDLING

I self-host my application. Why would I give up that control?

You can still self-host in Equinix, and gain the benefits not possible in a private, single tenant
data center.

We have the largest network-neutral global footprint. Our reach enables quick deployment
close to your target markets to boost performance.

Weve developed the most established and richest ecosystem in the industry. Our
resources give you access to a broad spectrum of service and hosting providers, revenue
opportunities and cost reduction possibilities.

We design, build and operate the best data centers on the planet. Our on-site staff and
Solution Architects are able to address any of your infrastructure, networking and IT
needs.

See the Box Case Study for an example of a SaaS provider who migrated from a selfhosted model in a private data center to a global solution that lowered latency and increased
throughput.
Why cant I just run my service in the public cloud?
Public cloud providers can definitely help launch your service in the near term as a payas-you-use model. However, research shows when software deployments reach a certain
scale, the operation expense of a pure public cloud solution becomes much more expensive
than a hybrid model.
Its easier to plan for growth and host within Equinix. When evaluating multi-tenant data
centers, SaaS providers should consider more than colocation costs. They should also
consider overall business value. Equinix offers these benefits:

More Choices Reduce Costs: SaaS providers may choose from a wide variety of
providers for the services they need at competitive market prices. All without having to
build out their own network.

Geographic Flexibility: Providing the application services as close as possible to endusers is critical for success. By utilizing leased data centers, Saas providers maintain
maximum flexibility in selecting precisely where to deploy infrastructure. Data centers
can launch where needed removing the limited boundaries of the providers own facilities.

objections Handling | 12

OBJECTIONS HANDLING (CONT.)

Choice of Cloud Components: To assemble a best-of-breed solution, Saas providers may

combine the best cloud components such as colocation facilities offering a broad range
of networks, compute and storage service providers (IaaS), cloud management platforms
and IT service providers on site. This extensive range of providers allow SaaS companies
complete flexibility to optimize their service mix and network at competitive rates. See
the Badgeville Case Study for an example of a SaaS provider who migrated from a pure
public cloud to a hybrid model and increased performance by 40% and also reduced
costs by 40%.

Equinix is too expensive.

Our model allows the data center to become a revenue center. No one else presents the
same access to providers, partners, and customers as Equinix. When you consider all our
advantages, they far outweigh any price premiums.
Also, we cost more because we deploy in the most populated urban areas in the world.
Others deploy in remote locations where land and energy is cheap. They cant deliver <10ms
latency to 90% of users.
Im not planning to deploy globally.
You may not have immediate plans to expand, but you may in the future. Or, your customers
may have data sovereignty concerns. Or, you may find partners in other regions. These are
all common scenarios and excellent reasons to deploy with Equinix from the start.

objections Handling (CONT.) | 13

QUALIFYING QUESTIONS

Inquire where end users are located. Work with your potential customer to identify initial
and future markets, scalability and rollout plans, and the network resources necessary for
performance.
Here are several important qualifying questions:
1. What performance metrics and best practices should you use to ensure end-user
satisfaction and revenue growth?
2. Do you have an enabling architecture to support your business goals?
3. Do you have a blueprint for deploying SaaS services?
4. Who do you need to connect to?
5. What suppliers will you need to leverage to ensure performance and manage costs?
6. What is your plan for growth? How will you reach new customers and markets?

Qualifying Questions | 14

TOOLS

Equinix Latency Modeler

The Latency Modeler is an online tool that simulates user deployments and predicts
performance for a given IBX configuration (e.g. Silicon Valley, Ashburn and Amsterdam).
Users set the performance requirements of their application (e.g. 100 ms (priority)) along with
current and future deployments. A global heat map is generated, along with a table of round
trip times by current, future and percentage improvement. Below is a link to the tool. If you do
not currently have a login for the Latency Modeler, please open a ticket with the Help Desk.

TOOLS | 15

Corporate HQ

EMEA

Asia-Pacific

Equinix, Inc.
One Lagoon Drive
4th Floor
Redwood City, CA 94065
USA

Equinix (EMEA) BV
Luttenbergweg 4
1101 EC Amsterdam Zuidoost
Netherlands

Equinix Hong Kong Limited

Suite 6504-07,
65/F Central Plaza
18 Harbour Road
Wanchai, Hong Kong

Main: +1.650.598.6000
Fax: +1.650.598.6900

Main: +31.20.753.7950
Fax: +31.20.753.7951

Main: +852.2970.7788
Fax: +852.2511.3309

Email: info@equinix.com

Email: info@eu.equinix.com

Email: info@ap.equinix.com

About Equinix

Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), connects more than 4,500 companies

directly to their customers and partners inside the worlds most
networked data centers. Today, enterprise, cloud, networking,
digital media and financial services companies leverage the
Equinix interconnection platform in 32 strategic markets across
the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific.

2014 Equinix, Inc.

XX-EN Cloud-IT-Services-Sales-Playbook 1F1 DD-JM 1403

By connecting directly to their strategic partners and end users,

customers are forming dynamic ecosystems inside Equinix.
These interconnected ecosystems enable companies to optimize
the performance of their content and applications and protect their
vital digital assets.

www.equinix.com