EDITOR’S QUESTION
THE WORLD OF IT IS IN THE
THROES OF GREAT CHANGE.
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.
SARA BAACK, CHIEF
PRODUCT OFFICER
AT EQUINIX
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.
J
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 recede – and
since companies have an imperative to
32
Issue 05
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.
ENTERPRISES
STILL HAVE
CRITICAL DATA
CENTRE NEEDS,
BUT THOSE NEEDS
ARE CHANGING
DRAMATICALLY.
Instead of being centralised and proximate
to HQ and operations staff, these data
centre 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.
This is why 46% of the Fortune 500 now
operate 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. ◊
www.intelligentdatacentres.com