Private data exchange between businesses outpaces public internet

DUBAI / Emirates Business

The capacity for private data exchange between businesses is outpacing the public Internet, growing at nearly twice the rate and comprising nearly six times the volume of global IP traffic by 2020, according to the Global Interconnection Index, a new market study published by Equinix that analyzed the adoption profile of thousands of carrier-neutral colocation data center providers and ecosystem participants globally.
As business models become increasingly digital, distributed and dependent on the real-time engagement of many more users, partners and service providers, the Index is a powerful new research tool. It highlights how companies are translating digital transformation into action and creating entirely new ways of connecting with their customers, partners and supply chain.
The Index will provide an annual baseline to track, measure and forecast the growth of Interconnection Bandwidth, defined as the total capacity provisioned to privately and directly exchange traffic with a diverse set of counterparties and providers at distributed IT exchange points.
“Some of the greatest technology trends of our lifetime, including mobile, social, cloud and the explosion of data, are creating disruption on the scale of the Industrial Revolution,” said Sara Baack, Chief Marketing Officer for Equinix, Inc. “In this new reality, it’s a ‘scale-or-fail’ proposition and companies are succeeding by adopting Interconnection, locating their IT infrastructure in immediate proximity to an ecosystem of companies that gather to physically connect their networks to those of their customers and partners. Interconnection helps fuel digital transformation by supporting multicloud consumption at scale, improving network latency and performance, enabling greater operational control, and reducing security risk.”
According to the Index, Interconnection Bandwidth is expected to grow at a 45 percent CAGR to reach 5,000 Tbps by 2020, dwarfing Global IP traffic in both growth (24 percent) and volume (855 Tbps)1. It is also growing faster than Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), the legacy model of business connectivity, by a factor of 10x (45 percent to four percent)2.
Fahad Al Hassawi, Chief Commercial Officer, du said: “The Enterprise sector in the UAE and in the region is experiencing widespread digital disruption, and firms should be looking to invest in enhancing their customers’ experience and engagement by embracing this transformation, which requires interconnections with networks, clouds, and vertical specific business ecosystems.
“Through our alliance with Equinix, we are offering a true interconnected platform for the regional enterprises, banks, insurers and electronic payments firms to colocate critical IT systems inside our data center and interconnect to facilitate the operation of countless IT workloads.”
Jeroen Schlosser, Managing Director, Equinix MENA said: “The trend of digital transformation is revolutionizing the MENA market, urging businesses to take innovative approaches such as cloud adoption.
“However, as this Global
report shows interconnection is key to ensure full digital transformation and for this, businesses will need to grow their interconnection bandwidth capacity (data exchange capacity).