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EDITOR’S QUESTION
SARA BAACK, CHIEF
PRODUCT OFFICER
AT EQUINIX
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J
ust as video killed the radio star, so will be the fate of many
of today’s traditional systems and technologies as the
rapidly changing digital economy makes way for new digital
infrastructures and operations (I&O) to emerge in their place.
This is true across the IT stack and as a cloud-first mindset takes
hold, I&O leaders face the reality that the IT they have known for
decades is dramatically changing and data centre infrastructure will
not be spared.
As workloads move to the cloud, enterprise data centre footprint
needs to recede – and since companies have an imperative to
innovate, often in a self-funding way, shifting an on-premises data
centre to a hybrid cloud future can reduce capital expenditures and
labour costs while simultaneously boosting agility.
The enterprise owned-and-operated data centre is on the
endangered species list. But let’s not write any obituaries yet.
Enterprises still have critical data centre needs, but those needs are
changing dramatically.
Today, IT leaders are being called on to deliver high-performing,
data-intensive, dynamic applications and IT services to users
distributed globally. Businesses’ I&O need
to be proximate to employees, partners and
customers out at the Edge to deliver a higher
quality of experience.
And traditional enterprise data centres,
centralised and siloed from the many outside
IT services being consumed in the modern
marketplace, simply aren’t suitable to meet
this need.
Companies are beginning to adjust to
this by re-architecting their corporate IT
infrastructures in favour of global colocation
and interconnection points of presence.
Instead of being centralised and proximate
to HQ and operations staff, these data centre
www.intelligentcio.com
deployments are distributed, close to users and services. Neutral
colocation facilities, like those that Equinix operates worldwide, have
emerged as the natural integration points between cloud services,
private data stores and other supply chain
partners and customers.
“
ENTERPRISES
STILL HAVE
CRITICAL DATA
CENTRE NEEDS,
BUT THOSE NEEDS
ARE CHANGING
DRAMATICALLY.
This is why 46% of the Fortune 500 now
operates at Equinix.
The world of IT is in the throes of great
change. And, while none of us knows exactly
what the future will bring, Equinix’s goal is
to be constant in helping its customers solve
problems and steward them through their
own Digital Transformations, whatever form
they may take.
It’s true that traditional, on-premises data
centres are dying as disruption shakes up
the global industry, but something better is
coming and the opportunity is real. n
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