Zenlayer
Procurement partnerAbout
Zenlayer is a distributed cloud platform for AI, providing edge compute, high-performance networking, and application acceleration across 50+ countries and 350+ edge nodes. Founded in 2014, the company offers bare metal servers, virtual machines, cloud connectivity, content delivery, and AI inference infrastructure designed for low-latency global deployment. Zenlayer specializes in emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa, enabling enterprises and AI co...
Details
VenSearch Intelligence
Ideal Customer
- Zenlayer's sweet spot spans mid-market to large enterprise technology companies and platform operators — particularly those with global user bases who require infrastructure in emerging or hard-to-reach markets like Southeast Asia, India, China, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.
- Its primary customer profiles include CDN and cloud service providers seeking to expand global reach, gaming studios and real-time communications platforms needing ultra-low latency, fintech and e-commerce companies requiring cross-border connectivity, and AI companies deploying inference workloads globally.
Key Differentiators
- Zenlayer's primary competitive differentiator is its unmatched depth of coverage in emerging markets — approximately 80% of its 300+ edge PoPs are located outside the U.S. and Western Europe, giving it a structural advantage for organizations trying to reach users in Southeast Asia, India, China, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.
- It positions itself as 'the world's first hyperconnected cloud,' emphasizing unified compute, networking, and AI infrastructure (including Distributed Inference, AI Gateway, and Fabric for AI) on a single global platform with on-demand, API-driven provisioning.
Industries Served
- Zenlayer primarily serves gaming, live streaming/media and entertainment, fintech and financial services, CDN and cloud service providers, SaaS/software companies, e-commerce, online education, blockchain/crypto, cybersecurity, AI companies, VPN providers, advertising technology, and enterprise IT.
- Notable named customers span these verticals — including ICE (financial exchange), Zoom, Getty Images, LEGO, Zscaler, VMware, SK Hynix, and Syngenta — reflecting a broad mix of tech-forward enterprises and platform operators.
Service Coverage
- Zenlayer operates a truly global edge cloud platform spanning 360+ data centers across 100 cities in 54 countries on six continents.
- Its infrastructure is especially dense in emerging markets, with approximately 80% of its 300+ edge nodes located outside the U.S. and Western Europe — concentrated heavily in Asia Pacific (East Asia covering 96 data centers in 23 cities; Southeast Asia with 81 data centers in 19 cities), Europe (50 data centers across 18 countries), Latin America (24 data centers across 6 countries), the Middle East, and Africa.
Partnerships
- Zenlayer holds several formal technology partner designations, including AWS ISV/Technology Partner, AWS ISV Partner of the Year, AWS CloudFront Ready Certification, Google Cloud ISV/Technology Partner, Oracle FastConnect Partner, Intel Cloud Service Provider designation, and participation in the Equinix Partner Program (progressing from Gold Partner to Global Partner of the Year for both 2024 and 2025 — two consecutive years).
- Its homepage also lists Dell, Fortinet, Microsoft Azure, Megaport, Jio, and Viettel as partner ecosystem participants.
Company Size & Ownership
- Zenlayer was founded in 2014 by Joe Zhu (Founder & CEO) and is headquartered in Diamond Bar, California, with dual operational headquarters also cited in Los Angeles and Shanghai.
- Employee count estimates vary across sources but most recent figures from 2026 place headcount at approximately 280–300 employees globally, down from a peak cited at 600; one source notes roughly 1,300+ clients worldwide.
Compliance & Certifications
- Zenlayer holds ISO/IEC 27001 certification (announced March 2024) and SOC 2 Type II attestation, both maintained through independent third-party auditors on an annual basis.
- Its compliance support page also references adherence to CIS Benchmarks for secure configuration baselines, and the company supports GDPR compliance and data center compliance licensing for customers operating in regulated markets.
Compiled from public sources by VenSearch · Last researched October 14, 2026
Offerings
20 offeringsAI Gateway
A one-stop access service providing unified connectivity to global AI models. It serves as a centralized gateway that enables applications to access multiple AI models globally through a single interface. AI Gateway is part of Zenlayer's broader AI infrastructure portfolio designed for distributed inference at scale.
Bare Metal
On-demand dedicated physical servers providing high-performance computing at the edge across 50+ countries. Servers can be deployed quickly via zenConsole with full API control, and are suited for compute-intensive workloads including AI inference, SASE, and latency-sensitive applications. Billing is flexible with hourly, monthly, or usage-based options.
CDN
A global content delivery network that caches and delivers content closer to end users across Zenlayer's distributed edge infrastructure. It is designed for CDN and cloud service providers looking to expand global reach and improve delivery performance. The CDN product is listed as Zurbo X CDN in the footer product listings.
Cloud Connect
An on-demand cloud connectivity service that provisions dedicated Layer 2/Layer 3 connections between public clouds and data centers across 35+ countries with 300+ cloud onramps. Customers can connect cloud-to-cloud, data center-to-cloud, or branch-to-cloud in minutes via API or point-and-click console, scaling from 1 Mbps to 10 Gbps. The service rides on Zenlayer's private global backbone for guaranteed uptime and ultra-low latency.
Cloud Router
A Layer 3 virtual routing service that provides instant full-mesh private connectivity across clouds, managed services, on-prem environments, and data centers in 35+ countries without requiring hardware. It reduces latency by 30-80% compared to the public internet during peak hours and supports automatic full redundancy and failover. Customers can scale from 1 Mbps to 10 Gbps with pay-as-you-go billing starting at one-day increments.
Custom AI Services
Custom global AI infrastructure deployment services tailored to specific enterprise and AI company requirements. This offering covers end-to-end global AI infrastructure buildouts including hardware procurement, installation, provisioning, monitoring, optimization, and maintenance. It is designed for organizations that need to quickly deploy their own hardware across Zenlayer's global footprint.
Distributed Inference
A distributed AI inference service that deploys and scales AI workloads globally at the edge to reduce latency. It enables intelligent applications to run closer to end users across Zenlayer's massively distributed infrastructure spanning 50+ countries. The service is designed for real-world inference with priorities on low latency, high concurrency, and reliable data delivery.
Edge Colocation
Distributed colocation services located close to end users across 50+ countries, enabling customers to place their hardware in Zenlayer's edge data center facilities. The service is designed for CDN and cloud service providers needing to deploy infrastructure in emerging and hard-to-reach markets. It is positioned as a way to expand global coverage and data sovereignty compliance.
Elastic Compute
Scalable virtual servers (also referred to as Virtual Machines or Elastic Compute) that allow customers to customize specs ranging from 1 to 32 vCPU and 2 to 128 GB RAM, scaling on demand. These VMs are designed for agile orchestration of cloud workloads across Zenlayer's global edge platform. They can be deployed alongside bare metal servers for mixed compute environments.
Fabric for AI
A high-speed network fabric purpose-built for AI connectivity, connecting compute, inference, and data transport across Zenlayer's global backbone. It provides the hyperconnected network layer that unifies edge GPU compute with cloud onramps and backbone infrastructure to support AI workloads. The fabric is designed to deliver fast, reliable, and scalable AI connectivity worldwide.
Global Accelerator
An application acceleration service that improves performance by routing traffic over Zenlayer's private global backbone, delivering up to 40% lower latency compared to the public internet. It is designed for latency-sensitive applications such as gaming, streaming, and financial services operating across global user bases. The service leverages Zenlayer's 350+ edge nodes and 10,000+ global peers to optimize traffic paths.
Hardware Procurement
A global hardware procurement service where Zenlayer's team handles worldwide equipment purchasing and transportation on behalf of customers. It is part of a complete solution offered to CDN and cloud service providers who need to deploy their own infrastructure across Zenlayer's global footprint. The service is positioned alongside installation, monitoring, optimization, and maintenance as a bundled managed offering.
Installation and Provisioning
A deployment engineering service where Zenlayer's engineers install customer hardware and provision networks according to industry standards across its global data center locations. This service is offered as part of a complete infrastructure solution for CDN and cloud service providers deploying their own equipment. It is bundled with procurement, monitoring, optimization, and maintenance services.
IP Transit
High-performance internet access delivered via a 100+ Tbps global network using a proprietary blend of top ISPs in each region with real-time traffic engineering and dynamic routing. The service provides 10,000+ direct peers to reduce network hops, expand traffic paths, and lower transit costs. It is offered as a connectivity service for CDN providers, cloud service providers, and enterprises requiring reliable global internet access.
Maintenance
Routine hardware and infrastructure maintenance service ensuring consistent uptime for customer deployments across Zenlayer's global data center footprint. It is offered as part of the complete managed infrastructure solution for CDN and cloud service providers deploying their own hardware. This service is bundled alongside procurement, installation, monitoring, and optimization.
Monitoring
A proactive network and infrastructure monitoring service that performs real-time analysis of network conditions and abnormality detection for customer deployments. It includes built-in redundancy and intelligent routing that dynamically selects the best routes for data transmission. This service is offered as part of Zenlayer's managed infrastructure solution for CDN and cloud service providers.
Optimization
An infrastructure optimization service that uses Zenlayer's proprietary operations support system to provide visibility into each device including servers, PDUs, switches, and routers to monitor status and usage. It offers insights on how to optimize equipment deployment for better performance and efficiency. This service is part of the managed infrastructure solution offered to CDN and cloud service providers.
Partner Program
A channel and technology partner program that allows businesses to partner with Zenlayer and resell or integrate its global infrastructure services. The program includes deal registration capabilities for partners. Zenlayer counts AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle, Intel, Equinix, and Digital Realty among its partner ecosystem.
Private Connect
A high-speed, private, point-to-point global network provisioned on demand, providing Layer 2 connectivity for secure traffic transfer even without encryption. It connects data centers, cloud environments, and enterprise sites over Zenlayer's private backbone. The service is designed for workloads requiring secure, dedicated connections separate from the public internet.
Virtual Edge
A virtual access gateway that connects branches, clouds, SaaS platforms, and data centers to Zenlayer's private backbone without deploying hardware. It supports IPSec, SSL, and GRE tunneling protocols and can be provisioned within hours. Virtual Edge works in conjunction with Cloud Router to extend private backbone access to branch offices.
Considering Zenlayer?
Our team will work with you to determine if Zenlayer is the right fit for your organization. From research and assessment through procurement negotiation and ongoing vendor management — we handle the entire process at no cost to you.