Equinix Performance Hub gives Enterprise Networks a Giant Boost

MEETING TECH CHALLENGES TAKES A STRATEGIC DATA CENTER.
AND AN UNDERSTANDING OF THESE CORE TOPICS.
AT THE CENTER
FIVE TRENDS THAT ARE

YOUR STRATEGIC DATA CENTER
STARTS IN 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
These are challenges we are familiar with in today’s business
landscape. What is less familiar—and therefore what many
companies aren’t considering—is the role the data center plays in
turning often-perceived challenges into strategic opportunities.
The businesses that thrive amid fluctuating technology demands
are keeping a finger on the pulse of current trends. And according
to analyst forecasts and IT executives, the five key trends affecting
our state of technology are:
Mobility
Consumer technology
Cloud services
Hyperdigitization
Globalization
1
2
3
4
5
Connectivity. Bandwidth. Latency. Security.

The Surge in Mobile Data Traffic Is
Coming From Every Direction.
By 2017, 5.2 billion people will be
connected through mobile devices:
streaming, sharing, downloading, sending,
receiving and opening up a world of
potential customers for the prepared
enterprise. This also means that a majority
of the population will be tapping into our
networks all day, every day. Although
mobile essentially bypasses the greater
potential for security issues posed by public
bandwidth, it’s still important for your
organization to have a reliable
infrastructure.
By 2016, there will be 18 times more mobile data
traffic as there was in 2011.
50 billion connected devices
worldwide by 2020
How to Make Sure You’re Prepared.
Know your traffic sources. As the fastest driver of IP growth,
it’s no secret that mobile data traffic is coming from a
multitude of directions. The new generation of mobile users is
more demanding than ever, sharing a massive amount of
video and photos and running bandwidth-intensive apps.
Apps for customers. Apps for employees. Apps for everyone
and everything. And now that it’s officially upon us, the
Internet of Everything (IoE).
MOBILITY
TREND1
Sources:
1 Cisco Visual Network Index (VNI) study, “The Zettabyte Era,” May 2012.
2 Cisco infographic, “The Internet of Things.”
1
2

Get ready for the IoE. There’s a new mobile phenomenon emerging, and it’s already causing quite a stir: the
Internet of Everything. Soon, everything that can be connected will be: cars will talk to gas pumps, shirts will talk to
washing machines, healthcare monitors will link to social networks.
Go with the flow. Traffic isn’t going anywhere but up. The challenge for businesses will be to make sure their
infrastructure can support both the growth of traffic and the need for global reach. To remain competitive,
enterprises will need to implement a progressive IT strategy that enables employees and customers to work and
consume data efficiently from anywhere.
By 2017, mobile data traffic is predicted to
grow 13-fold globally
Source:
Possibly needing only a single mobile handset, we will
soon find ourselves interacting with hundreds—
if not thousands—of mobile devices.
1
MOBILITY
TREND1

Localize the data center. Though great in theory, a mobile-
centric world will put more pressure than ever on IT
infrastructure. Taking advantage of new markets, plus the
increasing demands of current ones, will require a more
distributed and powerfully architected network. One that is
capable of both reaching and satisfying your mobile users—
anywhere, at any time, and at any level of digital demand.
The key is simple geography. The closer your network is to
your users, the better application performance it will deliver.
Localizing traffic is far more scalable than keeping your
equipment in locations that are nowhere near either the
content being served, or the users trying to access it. And
you get access to markets all over the world.
Global smartphone
subscriptions will reach 4.5
billion by 2019
Source:
TREND 1
1
MOBILITY
TREND1

How to Meet—and Exceed—Ever-growing Expectations.
Know your traffic sources. Today’s digital consumers expect the maximum quality and experience, in the
minimum amount of time. Even a relatively small latency in the experience can send them searching
elsewhere. To add to the pressure, the extended time consumers are engaging with their brand means
there’s a greater opportunity for delivering a poor experience somewhere along the line—and consumers
aren’t any more forgiving.
As Brand-Consumer Interactions Increase, So Does Pressure to Perform.
When you think about the explosion of apps like Instagram, Facebook and Yelp, as well as subscription-based
services, such as Spotify, Dropbox and Netflix, it’s easy to imagine how selling “services” has become one of
the world’s fastest-growing markets. The beauty of this sort of digital consumption is that consumers and
brands can interact with one another more directly. But the quality of these interactions must be stellar or the
relationships will likely be short-lived. With so many variables to accommodate, those expectations create a
lot of pressure.
TREND2
CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY

How to Meet—and Exceed—Ever-growing
Expectations.
Stay ahead of those expectations. Strive to be an early
adopter of mini-trends that are beginning to surface. Brands
are benefiting from perks like product customization at time
of manufacture, which delivers customized goods and
experiences in real time. Plan ahead, as these types of
trends put new pressures on real-time supply chain
performance. Every link in that chain must be architecturally
sound to meet demand and customer expectation. See the
following pages for examples with PayPal and Jamba Juice,
as well as Redbox.
Every 100ms of latency costs
Amazon 1% in sales
An extra 500ms of latency in
performing searches
dropped Google’s traffic by
20%
TREND2
CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY

PayPal’s “Order-Ahead Pickup” at Jamba Juice.
PayPal and Jamba Juice created a mobile app that allows
customers to make an order that will be ready for pickup at a
specified time. The steps below need to be executed flawlessly
to deliver a satisfying on-demand experience.
Both PayPal and Jamba Juice have a shared database
that identifies a PayPal user and serves up the closest
Jamba Juice location in real time.
Jamba Juice has another database that recognizes the
user (from previous purchases) and serves up real-time
specials, coupons, even flavors, that it thinks the user
might like.
Once the customer makes the payment, PayPal verifies
and obtains the payment from the bank.
PayPal sends the funds into the Jamba Juice POS
system.
The POS system displays the customer’s Facebook
picture, order history, current order and customized
coupons.
If just one of these links were to fail, or even slow down a
few seconds, the entire transaction could fail.
TREND2
CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY

Strengthen at the core. Whether it’s being able to get a
product customized and delivered in real time, or just
delivering consistent experiences between the brand and the
consumer, it all starts at the center of the IT infrastructure: the
data center. As in the PayPal-Jamba Juice and Redbox
examples, the key to success is a distributed architecture.
Your network should be designed so that it’s as close as
possible to each link in the supply chain—especially your
end-users—to ensure the best consumer experience.
Source:
1 VMware vFabric Blog article, “Powering Mobile Architecture with vFabric,”
Sept. 9, 2012.
Redbox’s Holding Service.
Redbox allows customers to hold a DVD at
a desired location through the site or app.
Several factors need to come together:
geolocation, interaction with the Redbox
location, ability to upsell in case the product
isn’t available, and quick payment
acceptance. All of this must happen in real
time, and intelligently, to create a seamless
and enjoyable customer experience.
How to Meet—and Exceed—Ever-growing
Expectations.
Apps make up a $10 billion
market, and are doubling
each year1
TREND2
CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY

It’s Time to Give the Cloud
More Clout.
Cloud customers are beginning to make the cloud a vital
part of their IT strategy, rather than for select cases.
They’re also becoming savvier, and in turn, more
demanding—expecting to interact, work and play
whenever, wherever and however they choose. As we
head toward worldwide cloud adoption,
it’s estimated that by 2017, the percentage of workloads
migrating to the cloud will increase by 500 percent.
By 2017, the percentage of
workloads migrating to the
cloud will increase by 500%.
A More Evolved Cloud Needs a More Evolved Strategy.
Choose hybrid. Gartner suggests that enterprises design private cloud services with a hybrid future in mind
and make sure future integration and interoperability are possible.2 With a healthy mix of user control and
flexibility, it’s no wonder hybrid clouds are fast becoming the IT infrastructure model of choice and are
expected to reach new adoption heights in 2014. But not just any hybrid cloud will do. The ones that offer
enterprise-grade security and direct access to key network providers give your applications that boost in
performance.
To thrive in tomorrow's IT environment, enterprises need
to see the cloud as king, and begin aligning their cloud
strategy accordingly while maintaining the security of the
private cloud.
Sources:
1 Cisco report, “Global Cloud Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2012–2017.”
2 Gartner report, “Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2014.”
1
TREND3
CLOUD SERVICES

A More Evolved Cloud Needs a More Evolved Strategy.
Leverage interconnection opportunities. To take advantage of the huge community of security, storage and
cloud providers available in the cloud ecosystem, position your infrastructure in neutral data centers where
you have the most choice among providers. Connecting directly with those services will give you the flexibility
you need to adapt, grow and manage your infrastructure in the hybrid environment.
Start with a distributed data center. As cloud services continue to grow, causing the demands on IT
infrastructure to become more complex, you’ll need the support of a more capable data center with a more
selective and intentional cloud strategy. The model of distributed data centers allows you to tap into cloud
services and build a cloud strategy with the guidance and infrastructure you need to form the ultimate hybrid
cloud with the highest performance imaginable. Data centers like these are hyperconnected, housing robust
and thriving ecosystems that give you unprecedented access to your users, customers, partners, providers
and target markets.
Source:
1 Cisco report, “Global Cloud Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2012–2017.”
By 2016, two-thirds of all data center traffic
will come from the cloud 1
TREND3
CLOUD SERVICES

How the Cloud Benefits Your Business.
TREND3
CLOUD SERVICES

The Rise of the Millennials and the Digital Economy.
Millennials are entering the customer base in droves. At 79 million strong, they’ve surpassed baby boomers to become
the largest generation in U.S. history. They’re a new type of consumer: They embrace the digital age. And now, they’re
driving it, as concepts like the Internet of Everything (IoE)—which is bringing people, process and data together—
become a reality.
The millennials’ comfort with purchasing non-physical products, or services that are all or almost entirely digital, is one
of the biggest factors stimulating hyperdigitization, the economic shift toward virtual goods and services. And as the
sheer volume of IP traffic and data increases, so does the need for an infrastructure that can keep up today and in the
future.
By 2020, roughly a quarter of the GDP will be
generated by the force of digital activity.
Source:
1 Gartner report, “Top 10 Forces to Impact Outsourcing and IT Services Industry.”
1
TREND4
HYPERDIGITIZATION

Are You Ready for the Data Deluge?
Prepare to store more metadata. Digital purchasing creates more opportunity to
stimulate revenue and loyalty among customers through data collection,
customization and targeting. With data storage comes security concerns, but it’s
possible to place physical security appliances at interconnections among
databases, application servers and Web servers, establishing a level of security
comparable to a private network.
Embrace the Internet of Everything. Don’t forget that wherever the Internet can
expand, it will, and it’s probably already on its way. The same goes for virtual
purchasing and the need to capture relevant data about consumption patterns
and preferences.
Promote the data center to center stage. In a growing digital economy, IP traffic,
the number of parties involved throughout the transaction process, and the
experience demand are expanding. There’s a need for a fundamental change in
network architecture—one that can meet data demands and scale over time.
The ability to do so hinges on having a strategic data center in place. It should
offer the right balance of providers for bandwidth requirements and overall
digital performance to achieve the best user experience.
Hyperdigitization will
generate $1 trillion growth
in annual revenue
83% of millennials sleep
with their
phones within reach1
Source:
1 PBS NewsHour article, “Millennials Study Captures Snapshot of Young America,” Feb. 24, 2010.
TREND4
HYPERDIGITIZATION

Rising Up to a Flatter World.
As our world becomes “flatter,” there will be
an increased demand from users everywhere
to achieve the maximum digital experience.
Workforces traveling abroad will expect
optimal performance from critical internal
applications, no matter where they’re located.
It’s because of these inevitable demands that
many of today’s enterprises are either
already globalizing or are planning to do so.
Not to mention the fact that once-untapped
markets will be ripe for business. For an
enterprise with a true global reach, potential
opportunities for growth will be limitless.
Strategize Before You Globalize.
Understand local regulations. When it comes to government-
business relations and data, the rules not only vary, they can
be constantly changing. How do you stay on top of it all as
you globalize? Seek out network and cloud providers, as well
as data centers, with global reach and experience in the
countries that you operate in today and plan to expand to in
the future.
Review regional growth. Studying current global growth
trends and growth forecasts is critical if globalization is your
plan.
Projected Technology Growth Between 2011-20161
Source:
TREND5
GLOBALIZATION

Expand to a global data center. A strategic data center with true reach can help you deliver a
local-grade experience to global markets—because you’ll be where your customers are, reducing latency and
providing a better user experience. You’ll simply be able to conduct business more seamlessly and expand as
your needs and opportunities do.
Strategize Before You Globalize.
Regional IP traffic growth rates by 20161:
Source:
TREND5
GLOBALIZATION

IS YOUR LIST COMPLETE?
THEN WELCOME TO A STRATEGIC DATA CENTER
AND THE FUTURE OF TECHNOLOGY.
Mobility. Consumer technology. Cloud services. Hyperdigitization. Globalization.
These and other emerging technology trends have the power to cause real problems or inspire real opportunity
for your enterprise. The key to ensuring the latter is recognizing that the data center must do more than store
racks and cages. It’s the foundation from which connectivity, bandwidth, latency and security stem—and as
such, must be every bit as scalable, localized, global and strategic as the rest of your IT strategy. Do that, and
the rest will fall into place.
READY TO ADD STRATEGY TO YOUR DATA CENTER?
Not quite ready? Learn more about the global reach, expertise, state-of-the-art facilities and unrivaled
ecosystems of Equinix—the only partner that gives you the strategic asset you need to face the future head-on.
CONTACT US NOW

Equinix Performance Hub gives Enterprise Networks a Giant Boost

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Equinix Performance Hub gives Enterprise Networks a Giant Boost