MEETING TECH CHALLENGES TAKES A STRATEGIC DATA CENTER.AND AN UNDERSTANDING OF THESE CORE TOPICS.

AT THE CENTERFIVE TRENDS THAT ARE

YOUR STRATEGIC DATA CENTERSTARTS 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

TR

EN

D 1

Sources:1 Cisco Visual Network Index (VNI) study, “The Zettabyte Era,” May 2012.2 Cisco infographic, “The Internet of Things.”

1

2

How to Make Sure You’re Prepared.

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:1 Cisco Visual Network Index (VNI) study, “The Zettabyte Era,” May 2012.

Possibly needing only a single mobile handset, we will soon find ourselves interacting with hundreds—if not thousands—of mobile devices.

1

MOBILITY

TR

EN

D 1

How to Make Sure You’re Prepared.

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:1 Cisco Visual Network Index (VNI) study, “The Zettabyte Era,” May 2012.

TREND 1

1

MOBILITY

TR

EN

D 1

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.

TR

EN

D 2

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%

TR

EN

D 2

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.

TR

EN

D 2

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

TR

EN

D 2

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

TR

EN

D 3

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

TR

EN

D 3

CLOUD SERVICES

How the Cloud Benefits Your Business.

TR

EN

D 3

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

TR

EN

D 4

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.

TR

EN

D 4

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:1 Cisco Visual Network Index (VNI) study, “The Zettabyte Era,” May 2012.

TR

EN

D 5

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:1 Cisco Visual Network Index (VNI) study, “The Zettabyte Era,” May 2012.

TR

EN

D 5

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