Blog/Article
Equinix Metal sunset: How to reduce the migration burden
Since Equinix Metal announced its sunset, uncertainty spread across the dedicated servers landscape. Around the globe, companies that depended on them discovered they would have to relocate their workloads by June 2026.
For thousands of customers who built their operations around what they believed was a reliable, enterprise-grade compute platform, this announcement may feel like a sting that only highlights the risks of depending on providers for whom bare metal is merely a side hustle.
As customers scramble to find enterprise-level alternatives and face the enormous costs of migration, one question emerges: how do you choose a bare metal provider that won't abandon you when market conditions change? Welly, welly, welly, well.
The Business Reality Behind Equinix Metal's Decision
Equinix has officially announced that it will shut down its bare metal platform, Equinix Metal, by June 30, 2026. That move marks the end of a service many saw as a key player in the bare metal space.
So, why does this matter? First, a bit of context. Equinix was founded back in 1998 by Al Avery and Jay Adelson as a neutral platform where competing networks could connect and share traffic.
Fast forward to today, and it has grown into the world’s largest data center and colocation provider for enterprise networking and cloud computing, running 270 scalable, AI-ready data centers across 75 major metros worldwide.
Equinix Metal was the company’s entry into the bare metal market, offering on-demand server provisioning alongside its traditional colocation services. To quickly get there, Equinix bought Packet, a well-established bare metal platform, rebranded it to Equinix Metal, and pivoted its focus to Enterprise customers. In the end, Metal just didn’t generate enough revenue to justify the challenges of managing it alongside the company’s powerhouse services (colocation and interconnection), which form the foundation of its $8+ billion in annual revenue.
What About Their Customers?
For years, Equinix Metal customers thought they’d found a solid, long-term partner for their bare metal infrastructure needs. Many surely signed multi-year contracts, built entire architectures around what Metal offered, and trusted that Equinix’s reputation in the industry meant the service would be stable and everlasting.
But the reality is hitting hard: customers were investing in what turned out to be more of a side project for a company whose primary focus was always elsewhere. They still have a few months to move their infrastructure, but that’s a tough deadline for teams that have spent years fine-tuning workflows around Equinix Metal’s specific features and capabilities.
What’s even trickier is the competitive conflict of interest that’s been there all along. As the world’s largest colocation provider, Equinix owns the very data centers where a lot of bare metal providers run their servers.
That meant Equinix was competing directly with companies that were, in many cases, also their colocation customers. By stepping away from the bare metal market, Equinix is essentially choosing to remain the landlord instead of competing with its own tenants.
Timeline and Deadlines Customers Face
Current customers still have some months to complete their infrastructure migration. This might seem like adequate time, but anyone who has managed large-scale infrastructure transitions knows that time can go by rather quickly when dealing with complex workloads, compliance requirements, and the need to thoroughly test new environments.
The urgency extends beyond just moving servers. Customers need to:
Evaluate alternative providers and their capabilities
Plan migration strategies that minimize downtime
Retrain teams on new platforms and APIs
Update monitoring, alerting, and automation systems
Ensure compliance requirements are met with new providers
Negotiate new contracts and service level agreements
Fortunately enough, companies like Latitude.sh can help you out with experts who are willing to make sure this transition is smooth and secure. More about that in a bit.
Latitude.sh's Commitment to Long-Term Stability
In contrast to Equinix's exit from bare metal, Latitude.sh represents a completely different approach. Founded with bare metal infrastructure as its core mission rather than a side venture, Latitude.sh has built its entire business model around serving customers who need reliable, high-performance dedicated servers.
Unlike companies that view bare metal as an experimental offering or secondary revenue stream, Latitude.sh has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to this market. The company has operated for years with a clear focus: providing enterprise-grade bare metal infrastructure with the reliability and support that mission-critical applications demand.
There is a long list of customers willing to say how they feel about Latitude.sh, and you can check it out for yourself. From crypto to streaming, Latitude.sh's customers span across different industries, and they all share similar results: less cost for more power, with the best developer experience available in the bare metal industry.
For organizations burned by Equinix Metal's closure, this distinction matters enormously. Latitude.sh offers something increasingly rare in today's cloud market: a provider whose long-term viability depends entirely on serving bare metal customers exceptionally well, not on maintaining focus across dozens of different service offerings.
Why should you move from Equinix Metal to Latitude.sh?
The transition from Equinix Metal to Latitude.sh can be super easy. Latitude.sh operates servers in many of the same locations where Equinix Metal customers currently run their workloads, and in several cases, we literally have infrastructure in the same buildings.
This geographic overlap means that migration doesn't require completely rebuilding network architectures or sacrificing the low-latency connections that many applications depend on.
Latitude.sh's Specialists Can Help You Out
Migration anxiety is real, and it's completely understandable. Moving critical infrastructure between providers involves countless technical decisions, timeline pressures, and the constant worry about what might go wrong.
That's why Latitude.sh has assembled a dedicated team of migration specialists whose sole focus is making the transition from Equinix Metal as smooth as possible.
These aren't chatbots or generic support representatives reading from scripts. These are experienced infrastructure professionals who understand the unique challenges that Equinix Metal customers face and can provide personalized guidance throughout the entire migration process. The approach is fundamentally human-centered: real people helping real people solve real problems.
Whether you need help mapping your current Metal configurations to Latitude.sh equivalents, planning migration phases to minimize downtime, or troubleshooting unexpected challenges during the transition, these specialists are committed to staying engaged for as long as it takes to ensure your migration is successful.
Latitude.sh has an excellent location overlap with Equinix Metal
Location compatibility is often the make-or-break factor in infrastructure migrations. Fortunately, Latitude.sh maintains a strong presence across the key markets where Equinix Metal operated, ensuring that customers can retain their geographic distribution and network characteristics.
Latitude.sh operates in these strategic locations: Buenos Aires, Sydney, São Paulo, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Mexico City, Amsterdam, Singapore, London, Ashburn, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York.
Comparing this with Equinix Metal's footprint reveals substantial overlap in critical markets:
Americas: Chicago, Dallas, São Paulo, and Ashburn
APAC: Singapore, Tokyo, and Sydney
EMEA: Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and London
In Some Cases, Latitude.sh's Servers Are Even in the Same Building
For the ultimate in migration convenience, Latitude.sh operates infrastructure in several locations where we share facilities with Equinix or operate in the same buildings as Equinix Metal servers. This physical proximity creates unprecedented migration opportunities:
Dallas: Latitude.sh servers operate in the same building as Equinix Metal infrastructure
Miami: Latitude.sh networking runs directly from our racks within Equinix facilities
Singapore, Tokyo, and Sydney: Latitude.sh maintains presence in the same data center facilities
This physical overlap means that in these sites, migration can involve minimal changes to network routing, virtually identical latency characteristics, and, in some cases, the possibility of relying on existing network connections and peering arrangements.
Equinix Metal Servers vs. Latitude.sh's Servers
When comparing server specifications, Latitude.sh’s Gen4 infrastructure delivers some clear advantages over Equinix Metal’s lineup across CPU, memory, storage, and networking.
CPU Performance Leadership
At the high end, Latitude.sh’s rs4.metal.xlarge features an AMD EPYC 9554P with 64 cores at 3.1 GHz, outpacing Equinix Metal’s strongest configuration, the a3.grande.x86, which has dual Intel Xeon Gold 6338 CPUs totaling 64 cores at 2.0 GHz.
The higher clock speed and newer architecture translate to superior single-threaded performance, while maintaining the same parallel processing capacity.
Latitude.sh also offers specialized high-frequency options, such as the f4.metal.large (24 cores at 4.1 GHz), designed for workloads that demand both low-latency response times and high per-core performance.
For customers considering migration from common Equinix Metal setups:
a3.grande.x86 → Latitude.sh’s rs4.metal.xlarge provides better per-core speed, more memory, faster NVMe storage, and stronger networking.
m3.large.x86 → Latitude.sh’s m4.metal.large upgrades core count (24 vs 32), clock speed, and doubles memory, with superior NVMe storage.
m3.small.x86 → Latitude.sh’s brand new m4.metal.small replaces aging Intel Xeon hardware with modern AMD EPYC architecture at higher frequencies.
n3.xlarge.x86 → Latitude.sh’s f4.metal.large and rs4.metal.large provide more RAM, faster storage, and stronger networking alongside improved CPU performance.
Storage and Network Performance
Every Latitude.sh Gen4 configuration comes equipped with high-performance NVMe storage and dual 100 Gbps uplinks on larger instances (f4.metal.large, rs4.metal.large, rs4.metal.xlarge).
By contrast, Equinix Metal typically caps networking at 25 Gbps, with a few exceptions reaching 100 Gbps.
This gives Latitude.sh customers:
Up to 4× network throughput for distributed computing clusters
Higher bandwidth for content delivery and streaming
Reduced bottlenecks in real-time data processing pipelines
Faster recovery in backup and disaster recovery operations
Storage Solutions, VMs, and Customizability
Beyond raw server performance, Latitude.sh provides comprehensive infrastructure solutions that extend far beyond what Equinix Metal offered, giving migrating customers access to advanced capabilities that can transform their infrastructure strategies.
Latitude.sh's filesystem storage solutions provide enterprise-grade distributed storage that integrates seamlessly with bare metal servers. Unlike Equinix Metal's simple local storage options, Latitude.sh offers:
Scalable filesystem storage that can grow with application demands
High-availability configurations with built-in redundancy and failover
Performance optimization for both throughput-intensive and IOPS-heavy workloads
Seamless integration with containerized applications and orchestration platforms
This storage flexibility means customers can deploy everything from high-performance databases to distributed computing clusters without worrying about storage limitations or complex SAN configurations.
Latitude.sh also offers dedicated GPU instances featuring:
NVIDIA H100 80GB configurations for the most demanding AI and machine learning workloads
NVIDIA A100 80GB setups optimized for training large language models and deep learning
NVIDIA L40s 48GB options provide excellent price-performance for inference and rendering workloads
Perhaps most importantly for enterprise customers with specific requirements, Latitude.sh's Build initiative represents a fundamental shift from the one-size-fits-all approach. It enables:
Custom hardware specifications tailored to specific workload requirements
Specialized components, including custom storage arrays, networking configurations, and accelerator cards
Hybrid deployments that integrate seamlessly with existing infrastructure
Enterprise-scale deployments from single custom servers to thousands of tailored machines
The Build initiative transforms bare metal from a commodity service into a true infrastructure partnership, where Latitude.sh works directly with customers to design and deploy exactly the infrastructure their applications require.
Interconnectivity across sites and cloud providers
Latitude.sh provides private, always-on connectivity between sites and across cloud providers via dedicated fiber paths, offering up to 400 Gbps of bandwidth so your traffic does not have to go through the internet.
For customers seeking global private interconnectivity for their infrastructure, Latitude.sh is the only bare metal provider offering a one-stop solution for both private compute and networks that works out of the box.
Here's what customers can get today when running their infra on Latitude.sh:
Shared Global Gateway: Always-on private connection automatically enabled for in-house server communication across our sites
Dedicated Global Gateway: On-demand connection with guaranteed bandwidth, complete privacy, and the ability to use your own private RFC1918 prefixes. You will soon be able to request it directly through our portal, so stay tuned.
Cloud Gateway: On-demand connection with guaranteed bandwidth, complete privacy, between Latitude.sh and other Cloud providers or Data centers.
Whether you are running projects in a hybrid-cloud environment or concentrating your compute in a single bare metal provider while running distributed workloads, Latitude.sh private network connectivity ensures greater reliability and lower latency for your applications.
Pricing comparison
When comparing Latitude.sh and Equinix Metal, the difference in cost efficiency is striking. Latitude.sh provides modern hardware configurations at a fraction of the price Equinix charges for similar or even less capable servers.
For example, the f4.metal.small costs just USD $0.40/hr (around USD $291 per month) and comes with 12 cores, 96 GB of RAM, and fast NVMe storage. By contrast, Equinix Metal’s closest equivalent, the m3.small.x86, is priced at USD $1.36/ hr (about USD $872 per month) for a smaller setup of 8 cores and 64 GB of RAM.
The difference grows even more at the higher end: Latitude.sh’s rs4.metal.large, offering 32 cores, 768 GB of RAM, and 2 × 8 TB NVMe drives, is available for USD $1.58 / hr (around USD $1,150 per month). Equinix Metal’s n3.xlarge.x86, with fewer resources—32 cores, 512 GB of RAM, and smaller storage—costs USD $6.43 / hr (roughly US $3,289 per month).
In addition to significantly lower base prices, Latitude.sh also includes 20 TB of free egress traffic with every server and offers high-bandwidth connections, such as 2 × 100 Gbps on larger machines. This makes it possible to handle demanding workloads without hidden network costs gradually piling up.
Ultimately, Latitude.sh delivers better performance-per-dollar across the board, making it the clear choice for teams that want enterprise-grade infrastructure without the enterprise-level price tag.
Latitude.sh's benchmarks across customers
The impact of Latitude.sh becomes even clearer when seen through the eyes of those building on it every day.
When Hashgraph decided to move away from Google’s managed Kubernetes service, the results were immediate and dramatic. Their monthly compute spend dropped from as high as US$75,000 to just US$10,000, all while running the same workloads.
Nathan Klick, Senior Engineering Manager, described the transition as a turning point: “I shrunk our actual compute cost from $60k to $75k a month to $10k a month…that was a huge savings.”
Beyond cost, what stood out most for him was the responsiveness of the Latitude.sh support team, which he praised as “always very much customer-centric,” quickly fixing issues or helping Hashgraph find solutions.
For Neon Labs, a Web3 company bridging Ethereum and Solana, performance and efficiency were the driving factors. By migrating to Latitude.sh, they cut their cloud bill by 60 % and tripled the performance of their workloads.
Latency, once dragging at over ten seconds on AWS, was reduced to just 3.4 seconds. As their team put it, “Once the migration to Latitude.sh was completed…we lowered the average processing time to just 3.4 seconds, and now we can say that Neon Labs is truly a real-time solution.”
Meanwhile, xLabs, which deployed Argentina’s first Solana validator, relies on Latitude.sh for stability at scale. With more than 100 nodes spread across 35 blockchains, they have achieved 100% uptime and a 0% skip rate in block production on Latitude.sh bare metal.
“We have an uptime of 100%. Also, the skip rate in the last month has been 0%. So it means that we don’t skip any slot to create a block,” explained André Claro, their Team Lead for Blockchain Nodes.
What impressed the team just as much was the ease of managing infrastructure through the Latitude.sh platform and the reliability of the partnership itself. As Frederik Hartmann, Community Growth Lead at xLabs, summed it up: “It’s nice to have a partner who's present, reliable, and can work with all over the world.”
In a nutshell, transitioning from Equinix Metal to Latitude.sh is not only convenient but also a significant upgrade in performance per dollar for your infrastructure. The cost-effectiveness of its solutions on top of the locations' overlap can certainly reduce the migration burden when leaving Equinix.
So make sure your infra gets the attention it deserves. Reach out to our migration specialists, and get started on the best Equinix Metal alternative available today.
FAQ
Does Latitude.sh have servers in the same locations as Equinix Metal?
Yes, Latitude.sh operates in many of the same locations, including Chicago, Dallas, São Paulo, Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and London. In some cases, we literally have infrastructure in the same buildings (Dallas, Miami, Singapore, Tokyo, and Sydney).
How do Latitude.sh servers compare to Equinix Metal in terms of performance and price?
Latitude.sh offers significantly better value. For example, Latitude.sh's f4.metal.small costs $0.40/hr vs Equinix Metal's m3.small.x86 at $1.36/hr, while providing more cores (12 vs 8) and RAM (96GB vs 64GB). Latitude.sh's top-tier rs4.metal.xlarge delivers 64 cores at 3.1GHz for $1.58/hr compared to Equinix's similar config at $6.43/hour.
When does Equinix Metal shut down?
Equinix Metal will be discontinued by June 30, 2026.
What migration support does Latitude.sh provide?
Latitude.sh has dedicated migration specialists (real people, not chatbots) who provide personalized guidance throughout the entire process, from mapping current configurations to troubleshooting during transition. Aldo, Latitude.sh offers substantial discounts to migrating customers who sign long-term contracts.
What additional services does Latitude.sh offer that Equinix Metal didn't?
Beyond bare metal servers, Latitude.sh offers GPU-accelerated VMs (NVIDIA H100, A100, L40s), scalable file system storage with high availability, custom hardware configurations, and native global interconnection across sites, eliminating the need for internal traffic to traverse the internet.