Equinix Unveils Advanced Digital Interconnection Services to Accelerate Global Business Expansion
CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Manoj Paul, Managing Director, Equinix India
- What is the new advanced digital interconnection services Equinix is announcing today? Can you share details on it?
The global landscape of digital business expansion is experiencing a significant surge, prompting IT leaders to increasingly embrace virtual infrastructure to facilitate this growth. A staggering 85% of global companies are projected to expand their multicloud access across multiple regions. Projections from the Global Interconnection Index (GXI) 2023 indicates that interconnection bandwidth is expected to witness a remarkable 40% growth, reaching 27,762 Tbps. This translates to an equivalent of 110 ZB (zettabytes) of data exchanged annually through 2027. In the specific context of Mumbai, interconnection bandwidth is forecast to experience a robust compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50%.
Furthermore, the digital transformation wave is reshaping the business landscape, with 90% of Fortune 500 companies expected to transform into digital providers. These companies will not only sell digital services but also consume them. Additionally, an impressive 80% of G2000 companies are projected to emerge as digital leaders. They will achieve this by interconnecting with four or more hyperscale providers and over 30 SaaS/business providers on average, solidifying their position at the forefront of the digital revolution.
All these trends drive the demand for interconnection. A global interconnection platform designed for digital business can accelerate digital transformation efforts by helping enterprises and providers gain access to potentially thousands of new global partners they can interconnect with via Equinix Fabric® and other digital interconnection services.
The advanced digital services that we are launching are:
- Equinix Fabric: This secure, software-defined interconnection service helps customers build digital infrastructure and services on demand at software speed. It supports scaling up hybrid deployments, achieving network agility and directly connecting to partners and providers easily and securely. Today, more than 3,450 customers across 56 markets are using Equinix Fabric, about one-third of Equinix’s total customer base. Those customers have been consistently growing the number of virtual connections on Equinix Fabric since the release of the service, reaching an all-time high of more than 48,500 virtual connections in Q1 2023.
- Equinix Internet Exchange: Equinix operates the world’s largest internet exchange footprint, with the most peers, in the most markets, passing the most traffic. Delivered on a globally available internet exchange architecture across more than 35 markets on Platform Equinix®, Equinix Internet Exchange aggregates thousands of peering sessions, lowers costs and enhances network control, performance, speed and reliability. This interconnection service enables networks, content providers and large enterprises to exchange internet traffic and expand operations globally.
- Equinix Internet Access: Equinix Internet Access provides internet access in Equinix International Business Exchange® (IBX®) data centers across more than 50+ markets globally. With at least two upstream ISPs in each market, Equinix Internet Access offers the resiliency that organizations demand and direct connections to major content destinations for superior performance. This agile, scalable, resilient and high performing internet access solution provides the flexibility required to connect to the internet as a main or backup internet access solution, allowing businesses to grow as their usage requirements do via scalable bandwidth options.
- What is demand for interconnection in India like? Is there any specific sector in which you are seeing higher demand for these services?
Due to the ongoing expansion of Equinix’s diverse ecosystems, our global interconnection revenue witnessed a substantial 12% and APAC 16% year-on-year growth when adjusted for normalization and on a constant currency (CC) basis.
According to Global Interconnection Index (GXI) 2023 report, Mumbai is the fastest growing edge metro in India, with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50%, with a strong mix of interconnection with and between networks, enterprises and clouds. Mumbai is forecast to surpass other APAC edge metros like Melbourne and Osaka in terms of interconnection bandwidth by 2025. Much of this growth in interconnection India in general and Mumbai in particular is due to growth in data traffic between Network Service Providers and OTTS/ CDNs due to improved bandwidth being provided by the Telcos leading to huge consumption of content much of which is Video. This will take another big leap with launch of 5 G services in more cities in the coming years.
Equinix is also focusing on educating Indian Businesses to leverage direct interconnection with other businesses, for example a bank connecting directly to a e commerce company, through platforms like Equinix Fabric and Equinix Internet Exchange, to improve customer experience and also to reduce bandwidth costs.
Recently launched Equinix Internet Exchange Will support this expansion of the market of interconnection and support the growth.
- Has Equinix launched this service in any other part of the world? If yes, then can you share some examples and customer case studies
Equinix Fabric is available in 56 metros and 210+ IBXs. As of Q1 2023, Equinix Fabric is diversifying as an exchange platform with 3,450+ customers, more than one-third of Equinix’s customers, able to connect to 1,300+ cloud and network destinations.
Equinix operates the world’s largest internet exchange footprint, with the most peers, in the most markets, passing the most traffic. In Q1 2023, peak Internet Exchange traffic grew 26% YoY to 30.7 Tbps (vs. 29.3 TBPS in 4Q22), exceeding 30 terabits per second for the first time. Globally, there are 43 Internet Exchanges are available in 42 metros.
Customer examples
Sime Darby Berhad – we have facilitated their deployment in our Equinix International Business Exchange® (IBX®) data centers in the Asia-Pacific region.
To ensure secure and stable SD-WAN integration across multiple markets, Sime Darby Berhad has also adopted Equinix’s Network Edge on Equinix Fabric, with the valuable assistance of our technology partner Coevolve. This deployment has allowed Sime Darby Berhad to swiftly scale and adapt to external factors by deploying digital infrastructure as needed. It has eliminated the need for previous systems that relied on shipment, truck-roll, and significant capital expenditure.
The collaboration between Equinix and Sime Darby Berhad serves as an important example, showcasing how businesses can achieve digital competitiveness in today’s rapidly evolving global landscape while maintaining sustainability. Our vision at Equinix is to collaborate with our customers to enable sustainable operations through robust digital infrastructure. We are proud to support Sime Darby Berhad in their digital strategy across the region as part of our broader commitment to the community.
Additionally, Zoom sought to meet the increasing customer demand for greater scalability and security, particularly in the financial services and government sectors. Leveraging the power of Platform Equinix®, Equinix Fabric, and Equinix Internet Exchange, Zoom successfully delivered direct and private interconnection to its video unified communication (UC) services, allowing customers to bypass the public internet. Equinix provided a high-performance, secure, and reliable interconnection and data center platform, effectively supporting Zoom’s ambitious global growth objectives.
- Who is the target audience for these services?
An increasing number of businesses are turning to digital-first to stay ahead, with the number of organizations becoming digital leaders growing by 30%. All enterprises and service providers can leverage our interconnection services to seamlessly connect to 10,000+ customers, partners, and service providers on its global platform.
- What is Equinix’s expansion plan in India?
In September 2021, Equinix entered India through a US$161 million acquisition of GPX India. Our first step into the Indian market provides us with a footprint of two highly interconnected data centers, which have become the de facto interconnection sites in India for carriers, content delivery networks (CDNs), content providers, and network and cloud service providers.
In November 2021, we announced the launch of Global Center of Excellence (GCoE) in India. GCoE will contribute to the development of innovative, automated and scalable digital technologies to improve the digital infrastructure resilience of our customers and employees. We plan to hire approximately 500 IT professionals in Bengaluru by the end of 2024. Our objective is to build independent, autonomous teams in India working in tandem with local leadership in an agile fashion to accelerate the pace of innovation. We are looking to set up a talent hub to focus on emerging technologies, corporate applications, data engineering and analytics, among other IT domains.
Recently, we announced an initial investment of over US$86 million to build Equinix’s third International Business ExchangeTM (IBX®) data center in Mumbai and an estimated investment of over Rs.1000 crores (US$125 million) in phases over the next 10 years for building a world class data center in Chennai’s Siruseri area.
In less than two years’ time since we entered India, we’ve already committed a total investment of US$ 370 million in the country.
Today, the global footprint of Platform Equinix spans 248 data centers across 71 metros and 32 countries, providing digital infrastructure for more than 10,000 of the world’s leading businesses, including more than 50% of Fortune 500 companies. In Asia-Pacific, Equinix currently operates 51 data centers in 13 metros across India, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Singapore, with expansions announced in Indonesia and Malaysia.
