Equinix is closing its bare metal IaaS platform

• Equinix Metal will no longer be sold from June 30, 2026
• Performance, security and stability updates will be prioritized until then
• Market dominance by established hyperscalers makes it hard to compete

Equinix has confirmed it will discontinue its bare-metal infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platform from June 2026.

The decision to ax Equinix Metal was communicated to customers in a letter from Chief Business Officer Jon Lin and Chief Sales Officer Mike Campbell, giving a warning period of more than 18 months.

New features are no longer being prioritized for Equinix Metal, however the company promises to continue delivering performance, security and stability features until it is sunsetted.

Equinix’s bare-metal service is a fairly recent addition to the company’s portfolio. It came about after the company acquired hosting company packet for $100 million, but will have only been available for a period of around six years once it gets discontinued on June 30, 2026.

Besides continuing to offer the relevant updates, Equinix is also offering to support customers in transitioning to alternative solutions, including collocation, managed and third-party services.

The service has been launched to allow businesses to deploy x86 and Arm servers within Equinix’s data centers, however CFO Keith Taylor suggested that Metal accounts for just 1.25% of the company’s revenue, which ultimately led to the decision to end support for the product.

The company confirmed: “Equinix is moving towards the end-of-life for our bare metal as a service product as we focus on the growth and acceleration of parts of our business, like colocation, interconnection, and hyperscale.”

More broadly, in October 2024 Equinix signed a joint venture deal to raise $15 billion to build xScale data centers for hyperscaler clients in a nod to the surging demand for AI-driven workloads.

The decision to retreat from the market is also a reflection of the highly competitive landscape, dominated primarily by hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.