The article mentions Equinix Metal but if you look it up they are shutting down the service https://docs.equinix.com/metal/hardware/standard-servers

Doesn't make me want to be a Equinix customer when they just randomly shut down critical hosting services.

I'm pretty sure that it's just the post-merger name for Packet which was an incredible provider that even had BYO IP with an anycast community. Really a shame that it went away, it was a solid alternative to both AWS and bare metal and prices were pretty good.

There's a missing middle between ultra expensive/weird cloud and cheap junk servers that I would really love to see get filled.