REDWOOD
CITY, Calif., July 6, 2022
/PRNewswire/ -- Businesses around the world are planning major
investments in digital technologies to support ambitious expansion
plans following lessons learned from the pandemic. New findings
from an annual survey of technology decision-makers, by Equinix,
Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), suggest a movement toward a less
connected world could not be further from the plans of digital
leaders across industries and geographies. Despite concerns of a
potential looming recession and talk at the World Economic Forum in
Davos about the end of
globalization, businesses appear to remain bullish about their
plans for further global expansion.
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Of the 2,900 IT decision-makers surveyed globally in the Equinix
2022 Global Tech Trends Survey, 72% of respondents indicated their
organization is planning to expand in the next 12 months, into
either a new city (31%), a new country (33%), or a new region
entirely (38%).
IT leaders in APAC were particularly confident about global
expansion: 82% said their business had plans to expand into new
markets, only slightly more than in the Americas at 78%. Perhaps
reflecting more caution around economic factors, tech
decision-makers in EMEA were less ambitious in terms of expansion
plans, with 59% planning to expand into a new market in the next
year.
A number of potentially limiting factors were identified by
businesses when it came to global growth, with supply chain
challenges highlighted as a particular area of concern. 59% said
their business was plagued by global supply chain issues and
shortages, while 58% specified the global microchip shortage as a
threat to their business.
These continued supply chain issues appear to be driving a need
for more virtualization, with growth aspirations underpinned by
significant planned investment in digital infrastructure. Almost
half (47%) of respondents said they plan to facilitate global
expansion plans by deploying virtually via the cloud, with
over a quarter (26%) doing so using a bare metal solution.
Meanwhile, 47% globally said they expect increased spending on
carrier-neutral colocation solutions to facilitate the
planned rise in digital deployments, while even more (59%) said
they intend to increase investment in interconnection
services as they plan to progress digital transformation and
build resilience.
The pandemic also continues to have a significant impact on
businesses' digital strategies. More than half of global IT leaders
(52%) say they are accelerating their company's digital evolution
because of the COVID-19 crisis. Indeed, over half (54%) confirm
their IT budgets have increased as a direct outcome of its
legacy—an insight into the now broadly acknowledged necessity for
robust digital infrastructure to pivot to evolving business needs
in an instant. Furthermore, the majority of respondents (61%)
believe the technology changes and investments implemented during
the pandemic are here to stay.
According to Karl Strohmeyer,
Chief Customer Officer at Equinix, "In recent years, bold
global expansion could have been seen as too risky or too dependent
on capital investment in physical infrastructure. Now, things have
changed. The pandemic has accelerated growth and innovation, with
more than half of our respondents saying COVID-19 advanced their
company's digital evolution." Strohmeyer explains, "There are huge
opportunities for businesses to successfully expand into new
markets and reach new customers. Using new digital models,
companies can deploy in new markets at relatively low cost and
without sacrificing resiliency. The survey reveals digital leaders
believe they can facilitate ambitious business expansion across
economic cycles—and having a robust digital infrastructure and
access to a rapidly improving pool of advanced technologies is a
source of that confidence."
There remain, however, significant concerns around
cybersecurity. Ensuring expansions are supported by resilient
digital models is business-critical, particularly at a time of
increasing volatility and emerging global threats. As part of their
digital-first strategies, 85% of respondents confirmed a key
priority is improving cybersecurity. 84% said complying with local
market data regulations is critical, while 83% highlighted the need
to futureproof their businesses. According to IT specialists,
the most feared threats were cyberattacks, security breaches and
data leaks (all 70%).
Rick Villars, Group Vice
President for Worldwide Research at IDC noted: "Even as
enterprises seek to navigate the waves of disruptions associated
with inflation, supply chain disruptions, and unmet skills needs
that arose in the first half of 2022, IDC consistently hears from
IT leaders that timely and expansive access to innovative
technology, interconnectivity, and intelligent SaaS resources is
critical. Companies like Equinix, that can speed access to needed
facilities and connectivity options while also enabling more
effective use of hybrid and multicloud services, will play a vital
role in helping IT teams make sustainable technology investment
decisions and take full advantage of SaaS and digital
infrastructure."
In addition, the survey revealed:
- Customer and employee experience prioritized:
Recognizing digital adoption affects end users, 83% of IT leaders
said enhancing customer experience was a priority. Companies also
acknowledged improving employee experience is critical to their
transformation journey and retention of talent, with 81% citing
this.
- Cloud migration continues: 71% of global IT leaders said
they plan to move more business functions to the cloud. Of those
respondents, half plan to move more of their business-critical
applications to the cloud, and almost half (49%) intend to move
security functions to the cloud.
- Hybrid cloud dominates: Hybrid cloud models were the
preferred approach for 38% of respondents, but almost a quarter
(22%) of digital leaders globally still rely on a single cloud
provider or none at all. Interconnection may step in to help here,
with 35% of respondents believing it increases flexibility of
connectivity, and 30% reporting they use it to enable hybrid
multicloud.
- Investing in innovation: Many IT leaders are looking to
futureproof their businesses and take full advantage of evolving
technologies, such as 5G, the internet of things (IoT), and Web3.
71% of respondents said they are moving to an everything as a
service (XaaS) model, citing the simplification of IT
infrastructure (65%), flexibility (56%) and improved user
experience (54%) as the key reasons for doing so.
- Focusing on sustainability: While innovating, digital
leaders are keeping a close eye on the sustainability of their IT
infrastructure. 67% say they are measuring and actively trying to
limit the environmental impact of their IT equipment, and 65% will
only work with IT partners who can meet key carbon reduction
targets. Indeed, 69% report sustainability is now one of their
organization's most important drivers with commitments made to
science-based targets.
To read more about the Global Tech Trends Survey or download
a copy, please visit: Equinix 2022 Global Tech Trends
Survey
About the Survey
The independent study, commissioned by Equinix, surveyed 2,900
IT decision-makers in diverse enterprises across the Americas
(Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, U.S.), Asia-Pacific (Australia, China, Hong
Kong, India, Japan, Singapore, South
Korea), and EMEA (Bulgaria,
Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, Portugal, South
Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UAE, UK). Respondents were selected
for participation from Dynata's online panel. The survey was
conducted online between March 1,
2022 and March 29, 2022.
Learn more about The Future of Digital Leadership.
About Equinix
Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) is the world's digital
infrastructure company™, enabling digital leaders to harness a
trusted platform to bring together and interconnect the
foundational infrastructure that powers their success. Equinix
enables today's businesses to access all the right places, partners
and possibilities they need to accelerate advantage. With Equinix,
they can scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services,
deliver world-class experiences and multiply their value.
Forward Looking
Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that
involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ
materially from expectations discussed in such forward-looking
statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but
are not limited to, the challenges of acquiring, operating and
constructing IBX® datacenters and developing, deploying
and delivering Equinix products and solutions; unanticipated costs
or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have
acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive
significant revenues from customers in recently built out or
acquired datacenters; a failure to complete any financing
arrangements contemplated from time to time; competition from
existing and new competitors; the ability to generate sufficient
cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay new or outstanding
indebtedness; the loss or decline in business from our key
customers; risks related to our taxation as a REIT; and other risks
described from time to time in Equinix filings with the Securities
and Exchange Commission. In particular, see recent Equinix
quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, copies of which are available upon request from
Equinix. Equinix does not assume any obligation to update the
forward-looking information contained in this press release.
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SOURCE Equinix, Inc.