At the recent Cloud Expo 2011 in New York City, TMC CEO Rich Tehrani (News - Alert) interviewed Darryl Brown, the director of Cloud, SaaS (News - Alert) and Media for Telx.

Telx, an interconnection and data center provider in 15 North American markets, has been around for a long time and has a lot of offerings. One major offering is the Telx Ethernet Exchange, which is intended to give users a more efficient and simplified method of interconnecting service provider networks on a one-to-many basis.

The exchange is powered by the 6.4 TB/s capable Cisco (News - Alert) ASR 9000 hardware platform and the modular Cisco IOS XR software operating system.

Brown discussed the company’s recently-launched cloud connection centers, which he discussed as SLA-driven facilities, which allow “cloud companies to connect to networks, to connect to enterprises customers, to deliver true hybrid” products.

Companies interested in Telx’s offering are looking for “choice,” Brown said, “a choice of connectivity, choice of locations.” They have an IT shop, and are looking to outsource some of it to somebody else, and offsite predominately “big data,” get it off your premises but still on your equipment. Basically the arrangement lets companies control their assets, but keep them off their premises.

Brown had some interesting insights in trends currently affecting the cloud space. “I think basically it’s the year of the hybrid, 150 percent,” he said for emphasis. “Cloud has grown up, providers understand that people aren’t just going to put their stuff on huge shared infrastructures,” without looking at more substantial concerns.

Hybridization will have a long run, Brown said, noting that IBM (News - Alert) still makes good money selling mainframes, and the data that is there still needs to be available on cloud apps: “If you want a ubiquitous platform you need to deliver a hybrid.”

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.