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OnLive taps Equinix for data center services to put games in the cloud

Game service OnLive won a name for itself by making serious game-playing possible on any kind of computer via the cloud. It uses web-connected data centers to compute video game imagery and to deliver those images on demand to users, who can log into their games from any computer in the world.
This kind of service puts a lot of demands the data center, and until now OnLive has kept secret who’s managing that data center for it. But now it’s named Equinix, a global provider of data center services, as its partner. By tapping all of the data center resources that Foster City, Calif.-based Equinix has, OnLive can set up a national and international online game network more easily.
Equinix is at the very center of OnLive’s strategy, said OnLive vice president of operations, Charlie Jablonski. OnLive launched its service in June, but the two companies apparently started their partnership over four years ago. Of course, if Equinix helps OnLive offer cloud gaming, then it could do the same for OnLive’s rivals. But OnLive likes to point out that it has built proprietary technology that allows its server-based games to operate instantaneously, making it seem like the games are being computed on the user’s own computer. Equinix helps with the raw data center computing power.
Publicly traded Equinix has more than 3,100 customers who use its network, and it operates more than 90 data centers in 35 metropolitan areas. Equinix was founded in 1998 by Al Avery and Jay Adelson; the latter went on to become chief executive of Digg and is now an angel investor. Equinix has 1,900 employees. Rivals include Terremark, Telx, Rackspace and Savvis.