Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Equinix is acquiring Packet

packet.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 63 posts

Re: Equinix is acquiring Packet

#2

Post by donalhunt »

Packet's blog post: https://www.packet.com/blog/ping-power-processors/

This is probably a good play for Equinix as it provides a lower barrier to entry to a segment of the market that they typically haven't engaged (Packet being largely profitable probably helps).

In addition, I believe Packet already had presence in a number of Equinix datacenters so "landlord buys tenant" comes to mind...

Re: Equinix is acquiring Packet

#3

Post by drej »

A fun story! Packet support contacted me one day last fall to ask about my business. I said I had none, I used Packet years before then for personal projects and only for a few days. Then they asked what my plans were for the 13 VMs I had running. I knew of no such VMs.

I guess my account got pwned.

They asked how I'd pay for these - $900 worth I think - since I didn't have a valid card in their system (the previous one expired since I last used Packet). I told them to stop the VMs and allow me to reset my credentials. I also asked them to investigate their logs and geolocate all the users that logged into my account. I was also curious they actually let someone log into the account from a new IP (without notifying me) and also allowed them to run instances without a valid card.

They blocked my account, which also blocked this support thread. So I started a new thread from an alternative e-mail address to resolve the issues.

I never heard from them again.

Re: Equinix is acquiring Packet

#4

Post by Eikon »

Packet’s offering are so good and so much above competition that it’s not even funny.

I mean, why almost no one else is offering BGP ECMP, byoip, anycast routing, a sane setup system among others. It boggles my mind.

It’s a hard sell going back to geoip and shitty layer2 switching that you get everywhere else after using their services.

Re: Equinix is acquiring Packet

#5

Post by q3k »

Likely bad news and writing on the wall for the open-but-competitive culture at Packet. Equinix has been historically turning every single acquisition into a closed-off enterprise-only product/service, especially in the IXP space.

Re: Equinix is acquiring Packet

#6

Post by Eikon »

drej wrote: post #3

A fun story! Packet support contacted me one day last fall to ask about my business. I said I had none, I used Packet years before then for personal projects and only for a few days. Then they asked what my plans were for the 13 VMs I had running. I knew of no such VMs. I guess my account got pwned. They asked how I'd pay for these - $900 worth I think - since I didn't have a valid card in their system (the previous…

Packet is not doing virtualization.

Re: Equinix is acquiring Packet

#7

Post by hetspookjee »

q3k wrote: post #5

Likely bad news and writing on the wall for the open-but-competitive culture at Packet. Equinix has been historically turning every single acquisition into a closed-off enterprise-only product/service, especially in the IXP space.

I didn't know how fast to turn around when I tried to register an account and they insisted I needed to provide a copy of my passport or drivers license. I don't know why I need to provide such information for a hosting provider as I've never had to do so before at any of their competitors.

or perhaps you mean something else with open?

Re: Equinix is acquiring Packet

#8

Post by shaklee3 »

donalhunt wrote: post #2

Packet's blog post: https://www.packet.com/blog/ping-power-processors/ This is probably a good play for Equinix as it provides a lower barrier to entry to a segment of the market that they typically haven't engaged (Packet being largely profitable probably helps). In addition, I believe Packet already had presence in a number of Equinix datacenters so "landlord buys tenant" comes to mind...

How do you know they're profitable?
Post reply on HN