Ranking
The vendor's agreements were benchmarked against thousands of vendor forms and are in the top 43% for customer favorability.
50% customer favorability, based on 750 plus contract signals powered by Certify.
Indicates balanced, low-risk terms favorable to the customer.
Top 43% IT contract. No structural blockers. Procurement-ready.
Risk Summary
A concise snapshot of key risks, their impact, and priority concerns.
Insurance
Insurance requirements
- Equinix must carry general liability insurance
- Equinix must carry workers' compensation insurance
- Equinix must carry errors and omissions insurance
- Equinix must carry data related insurance
- Equinix must carry some other form of insurance TermScout was unable to classify - see citation
Summary
Liability cap
- Equinix's liability is capped at 12 months' fees
- There is no secondary cap on Equinix's liability
- Customer's liability is not capped
Exceptions to the liability cap
- There are no exceptions to Equinix's liability cap
Excluded damages
- One or more forms of indirect damages are excluded from Equinix's liability
- One or more forms of indirect damages are excluded from Customer's liability
Exceptions to excluded damages
- There are no exceptions to the damages excluded from Equinix's liability
- There are no exceptions to the damages excluded from Customer's liability
Timing of claims
- There are no limits on when claims must be brought by Customer
- There are no limits on when claims must be brought by Equinix
Claims
- Equinix indemnifies Customer for claims based on third-party IP infringement
- Equinix indemnifies Customer for claims arising from death or personal injury
- Equinix indemnifies Customer for claims arising from damage to property
- Customer indemnifies Equinix for claims arising from death or personal injury
- Customer indemnifies Equinix for claims arising from damage to property
- Customer indemnifies Equinix for claims based on Customer's use of the service
Scope of obligations
- Equinix's IP indemnification covers all types of IP
- Equinix's indemnification obligations are not the exclusive remedy for indemnified claims
- Equinix's indemnification includes the obligation to provide a defense
- Equinix's indemnification includes the obligation to hold harmless
- Customer's indemnification obligations are limited to third-party claims
- Customer's indemnification obligations are not the exclusive remedy for indemnifiable claims
- Customer's indemnification includes the obligation to provide a defense
- Customer's indemnification includes the obligation to hold harmless
Limitations, conditions, or exclusions
- Obligations include conditions regarding Customer's cooperation or Equinix's control of the defense
- Obligations include conditions regarding Customer's use of the services in breach of the contract
- Equinix's indemnity obligations include conditions regarding settlements
- There are time constraints on when Customer must notify Equinix of an indemnifiable claim
- Obligations include conditions regarding Equinix's cooperation or Equinix's control of the defense
- Customer's indemnity obligations include conditions regarding settlements
- There are time constraints on when Equinix must notify Customer of an indemnifiable claim
Warranties Offered
Implied warranties
- Equinix does not disclaim any implied warranties
Data Rights
Data provided by Customer
- Equinix does not claim ownership of any data provided by Customer
- Equinix does not receive usage rights in any data provided by Customer beyond what is necessary to improve or provide the services
Data Security
Subprocessor obligations
- The contract does not list subprocessors
- Equinix is not required to ensure that subprocessors are bound by data or privacy requirements similar to those in this contract
Security commitments
- Equinix makes contractually binding data security commitments
Third party audits, standards, or certifications
- Equinix commits to comply with at least one third-party data security audit, standard, or certification
- Equinix commits to Soc 1 audits
- Equinix commits to Soc 2 audits
- Equinix commits to ISO 27001 standards and/or certification
- Equinix commits to PCI DSS standards and/or certification
- There are no qualifications and/or limitations to Equinix's commitments to comply with third-party data security audits, standards, or certifications
Data breach notification policy
- Equinix does not commit to notifying Customer of a security breach impacting Customer's data
Summary
Vendor's confidential information
- Customer must provide some protection of Equinix's confidential information
Customer's confidential information
- Equinix must provide some protection of Customer's confidential information
- Equinix explicitly commits not to disclose Customer's confidential information, except as necessary to provide the services
- Equinix explicitly commits not to use Customer's confidential information, except as necessary to provide the services
Mutuality
- All commitments concerning confidential information are mutual
Residuals clause
- There is no residuals clause
Payment Terms
Late payment penalties
- There are penalties for late payments
Payments due
- Customer has at least 30 days to pay
Vendor's expenses
- Equinix does not reserve the right to bill Customer for any expenses incurred by Equinix
Summary
Customer's termination rights
- Customer has certain rights to terminate for cause
Refunds
- Customer's termination rights do not include the right to a refund
Auto-renewal
- The contract has auto-renew language, but Customer may opt out
- The contract has auto-renewal language and Customer may opt out by giving less than or equal to 45 days' notice
Vendor's termination and suspension rights
- Equinix does not receive the right to terminate the contract for convenience
- Customer has between 11 and 30 days to cure a breach before Equinix can terminate for cause
- Equinix may suspend Customer's access to the service for payment-related issues
Customer's IP
Licenses to Customer IP
- Equinix receives a right to Customer's suggestions and/or feedback
- Equinix receives the right to use Customer's name and/or marks publicly
Publicity rights
- Equinix's use of Customer's name and/or marks is subject to Customer's guidelines
Assignment of Customer IP or work product
- Customer does not assign any work product or other IP to Equinix
Summary
Non-compete
- There are no restrictions on Customer's right to compete with Equinix
Non-solicit
- There are no restrictions on Customer's right to solicit
Exclusivity
- There are no restrictions on Customer's ability to procure similar products or services from other vendors
Vendor's assignment rights
- Equinix is allowed to assign in the event of a merger or acquisition
- Equinix is allowed to assign in the event of a corporate reorganization
- There are consent requirements restricting Equinix's ability to assign the contract
- Consent requirements do not apply in the event of a merger or acquisition
- Consent requirements do not apply in the event of a corporate reorganization
- There are notice requirements restricting Equinix's ability to assign the contract
- Notice requirements apply to Equinix's assignment rights in the event of a merger or acquisition
- Notice requirements apply to Equinix's assignment rights in the event of a corporate reorganization
- There are no restrictions or conditions on Equinix's right to assign to a competitor of Customer
Customer's assignment rights
- Customer is allowed to assign in the event of a merger or acquisition
- Customer is allowed to assign in the event of a corporate reorganization
- There are consent requirements restricting Customer's ability to assign the contract
- Consent requirements do not apply in the event of a merger or acquisition
- Consent requirements do not apply in the event of a corporate reorganization
- There are notice requirements restricting Customer's ability to assign the contract
- Notice requirements apply to Customer's assignment rights in the event of a merger or acquisition
- Notice requirements apply to Customer's assignment rights in the event of a corporate reorganization
- There are no restrictions or conditions on Customer's right to assign to a competitor of Equinix
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Why this Matters
See value, risks, and position at a glance for better decisions.
How TrustMark™ Works?
Data Extraction
Scans and converts legal text into structured data.
Objective Scoring
Clauses benchmarked against market data.
Deal Breakers
Risks and non-negotiables flagged early.
Benchmarking
Compares your contract to market standards.
Certification
Contract validated after meeting risk and score thresholds.
Based on 750 plus contract signals benchmarked against market data.
Certified Contract Reports, Explained
Verified™ contract reviews are reviews of contracts that have been carefully checked by contract experts. This review is designed to help users understand the rights and obligations associated with the Universal Terms ("UT") for Equinix, Inc.. We looked at the issues found in 'Term Sheets' and did not look for any other issues.
For more information on TermScout's contract review process, visit our methodology page.
In order to qualify for Certification, a contract must meet the following criteria:
- Achieve a TermScout rating of Balanced or Customer Favorable, and
- Be free of all designated Deal Breaker clauses.
The difference between certified Balanced and certified Customer Favorable is the TermScout favorability rating achieved by the contract. Each of these criteria is more fully described below.
A contract is balanced when it allocates risks between the parties in a roughly equal manner, as determined by TermScout's two-step, data-driven analysis. First, we use our proprietary AI to abstract over 750 defined data points from each contract we analyze. Then, we use an algorithm to objectively score that data. Because TermScout looks at the exact same set of data points and uses the exact same scoring algorithm in every contract analysis we conduct, you can now compare contracts on an apples-to-apples basis. (You can read more about the data points that TermScout analyzes in every IT contract here.)
This enables us to objectively rate contracts at both the agreement level and by key topic area (e.g., limitations of liability, indemnification, warranties, etc.) and show you which contracts are vendor favorable, which are customer favorable, and which are balanced.
Not all risks are created equal. Even if a contract shifts only a single risk to the buyer, the contract still may not merit certification if that risk is material enough. Examples of these types of Deal Breakers include exclusivity, complete disclaimers of liability, etc. Accordingly, TermScout will not certify a contract if it contains any of the following Deal Breaker clauses,² which TermScout identified by reference to market data and input from prominent buy-side and sell-side legal experts from TermScout's Innovation Advisory Council:
This makes it nearly impossible for a customer to recover from a vendor, no matter what goes wrong - even if the vendor violates other provisions of the contract.
Signing non-competes means contractually promising not to engage in a certain line of business. This is something most businesses want to avoid where possible.
Agreeing not to solicit a vendor's employees, customers, or vendors sounds reasonable, but it places challenging burdens on the customer to ensure they comply.
Agreeing not to procure similar services from other companies can severely hinder a company's ability to do business.
Privacy laws require companies to follow strict rules with respect to how they handle certain types of data. This clause presents major risks to a company's ability to comply with such laws.
It's extremely rare for a customer to need to assign IP rights to an IT vendor. Doing so can materially jeopardize a company's rights in its own IP.
Since most IT services today are delivered "as a service", customers often upload wide varieties of information onto vendors' servers. Confidentiality commitments are expected by most customers.
The goal of TermScout's reports is to provide users with the data necessary to make an informed decision about whether they can accept the terms. The data provided in TermScout's reports includes:
- Term Sheet: A full report of the key rights and obligations contained in the agreement.
- Overall Ratings: TermScout's overall impression of the favorability of the contract vis a vis the parties. These ratings are algorithmic approximations of favorability that are based on market data and the subject views of contract experts with experience in the specific type of contract.
- Rare Clause Radar: TermScout identifies and surfaces a list of the most rare and material clauses that favor your counterparty.
- Playbooks: Playbooks are a way of programming into TermScout's software a specific set of acceptance criteria for a contract type. All accounts have access to sample Playbooks for select templates, and Pro accounts have the ability to build custom Playbooks.
- Comparable Contracts: We'll show a list of contracts sorted by favorability ratings and allow for the comparison of similar contracts based on position, industry, and contract type.
- Market Data: Any right or obligation in a contract can be compared to market data for similar contract types, including data from TermScout's Contract Market Database™ of thousands of public contracts and anonymized and aggregated data from hundreds of negotiated contracts.
Certified Contract Reports contain only a subset of the above data. To access all of the data available, create a free account here and search for the desired contract in Triage.
Please note that this report focuses on the identification of terms from the contract documents listed under 'Scope of Review' and compares them against a defined set of criteria. Certain services may be subject to additional terms not available to TermScout, such as purchase orders and other deal-specific documents. You should always review the terms associated with the specific service you are using and know that TermScout's ratings generally do not cover (a) services purchased through a reseller, (b) offline variants of any of the Agreements, (c) service-specific terms that override any of the terms discussed here, or (d) free services. You also should consult your legal counsel if you have any questions about the meaning, significance or assessment of any agreement or provision.
TermScout prepared this report with an average use-case customer in mind and operated under the assumptions listed below (the "Key Assumptions"). To the extent that provisions in a contract vary based on specific circumstances that differ from the Key Assumptions, TermScout ignores those variations. Additional contract-level assumptions, if any, are disclosed in 'Notes to Customer'.
Key Assumptions
- Customer is an average "end user" of the service (i.e. not a partner, distributor, or developer).
- Customer is not a government entity.
- Customer is a US-based company and is using the service in the US.
- Customer is a paying user (i.e. not a user of free services).
- Customer is not using beta services.
- Unless otherwise noted, service-specific terms that may override or supersede the terms of the Agreement are not reviewed by TermScout.
We reviewed the UT for Equinix and any documents specifically listed under 'Scope of Review'. For purposes of this report, "Customer" means the party contracting with Equinix and "Vendor" means Equinix.
References herein to the "Agreement" are to the following documents:
- The Primary Document: Universal Terms ("UT")
- The following Secondary Document(s) expressly incorporated by reference into the Primary Document and reviewed by TermScout as part of this analysis:
TermScout did not review any documents other than those listed above. If other documents form part of this Agreement, the answers provided by TermScout may be incomplete or incorrect. TermScout's accuracy commitments only cover documents specifically identified in this section.
No additional notes to customer for this report.
Frequently Asked Questions
Find quick answers to the most common questions about our platform, process, and agreements.
Infrastructure vendors often support business-critical systems where downtime, latency, or degraded performance can affect multiple operational environments simultaneously. IT teams therefore scrutinize service level commitments closely when uptime guarantees, response obligations, or escalation procedures lack operational specificity. Additional review is common when agreements rely heavily on external policies or provide limited remediation mechanisms following outages. Enterprise buyers generally expect infrastructure providers to maintain measurable and enforceable operational commitments tied to continuity and reliability expectations.
Buyers typically compare service commitments against vendors supporting similar categories of hosting, networking, cloud, or operational infrastructure. Agreements tend to appear more market aligned when they define uptime thresholds clearly, establish transparent escalation timelines, and provide meaningful remediation structures following service disruptions. Contracts may create procurement friction when exclusions are unusually broad or when service obligations remain heavily discretionary despite the operational dependency placed on the platform.
Escalation frequently occurs when agreements separate operational obligations across multiple documents or permit vendors to modify service standards without customer approval. IT and procurement teams also pay close attention to whether outage notifications, maintenance windows, and support response commitments align with actual operational requirements discussed during procurement. Weak or inconsistent service-level structures may signal governance immaturity and increase concern about long-term operational reliability.
Infrastructure platforms often form part of the organization’s foundational operational environment, making continuity and performance governance especially important. Enterprise buyers therefore evaluate service commitments not only for technical adequacy but also for operational accountability during outages, scaling events, and incident-response scenarios. Agreements that narrowly limit remedies or leave key operational expectations undefined typically generate additional procurement, IT, and legal review before approval.
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