Private data exchange will outstrip growth of public internet by 2020

17 Aug 2017

Maurice Mortell of Equinix. Image: Philip Leonard

Data centre behemoth Equinix predicts that interconnection bandwidth will reach six times the volume of public internet in less than three years.

Equinix has published a new study featuring insights from the Global Interconnection Index about the future of the internet as we know it.

The report highlights the consequences of digital transformation, as companies create new ways of connecting with partners, supply chains and customers.

Managing director for Ireland and emerging markets at Equinix, Maurice Mortell, describes the change as “the emergence of a new internet”.

He attributes several factors that are causing disruption “on the scale of the industrial revolution”, namely mobile, social, cloud and the explosion of data.

“In this new reality, it’s scale or fail for companies. To succeed, they are choosing interconnection; locating their IT infrastructure in an ecosystem of companies that gather to physically connect with customer and partner networks. Interconnection supports multi-cloud consumption at scale, improves network performance, enables greater operational control and reduces security risk.”

‘Interconnection in Europe is expected to grow 44pc per annum in terms of bandwidth as businesses shift to digital. We will continue to invest significantly in Ireland in order to support the huge growth of private interconnections that the digital revolution demands’
– MAURICE MORTELL

Ireland is key

Mortell emphasised Ireland as a key location in terms of contributing to interconnection growth in Europe as an ever-growing list of companies seek to locate their data here.

“Interconnection in Europe is expected to grow 44pc per annum in terms of bandwidth as businesses shift to digital. We will continue to invest significantly in Ireland in order to support the huge growth of private interconnections that the digital revolution demands.”

He added that the only realistic way for Irish-based companies to succeed on a global level is to embrace this interconnected future.

Interconnection is the future

Head of cloud and technology at Oracle UK, John Abel, pulled no punches, stressing the importance of interconnection for a thriving business.

“Data is now the lifeblood of organisations today, and businesses in the UK and Ireland are increasingly relying on it to move closer [to] their customers and partners in their respective ecosystems.

“It is vital that companies, large and small, ensure that they have infrastructure in place, and interconnection bandwidth provisioned that is safe, secure and robust enough to provide them with access to all of their data sources, and allow them to use this information to inform their decisions and drive their businesses forward in a digital world,” said Abel.

Both enterprises and service providers will be transforming their business models into more information-centric ones, but the banking and insurance segment is predicted to be the largest consumer of interconnection bandwidth, as it has been forced by digitisation to engage with customers in new ways.

As digital technology’s centricity in business continues apace, traditional IT deployment models will become a thing of the past.

Ellen Tannam was a journalist with Silicon Republic, covering all manner of business and tech subjects

editorial@siliconrepublic.com