REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Oct. 19, 2021 – The latest Global Interconnection Index (GXI Vol. 5), an annual market study published by Equinix, reveals that the pandemic has forced economies into digital overdrive, with digital leaders, businesses who were already implementing a digital-first strategy, moving four times faster than pre-pandemic levels. These businesses have compacted the time to deploy their digital infrastructure to multiple regions, expand to multiple edge locations, and integrate multiple clouds — what might have taken two years, is now achievable within 6 months.
This accelerated pace of digital transformation will continue to fuel the rapid growth in interconnection bandwidth. According to the GXI Vol. 5, the Americas region is the largest globally, contributing 47% of interconnection bandwidth, and is expected to grow at a 43% CAGR to reach 10,156+ Tbps by 2024. This growth is aligned with the increasing demand for the digital infrastructure needed to bring more businesses online, facilitate electronic integration with partners and supply chains, and reach more people in distributed hybrid work environments.
With a growth rate of 54% CAGR, Toronto and Montreal are tied as the second fastest growing edge metros in North and South America behind Mexico City. Toronto is forecast to continue to be the largest metro in Canada, with growth led by financial services. Toronto was also identified as having the greatest mix of business-to-business activity (over network and clouds) of any edge metro.
In the GXI benchmark, locations that are primarily used to provision capacity between networks, clouds, XaaS providers and organization digital infrastructure have been identified as core metros. Edge metros are those locations primarily used as the interface between the physical and digital worlds as organizations connect to customers, edge devices and places of business and participate in local marketplaces
Additional Insights from GXI Vol. 5
- By industry, Toronto ranked as the fourth largest metro in the Americas for securities & trading and industrial services.
- Close to 30% of enterprise infrastructure deployed in carrier neutral facilities has moved to the edge, in proximity to points of data consumption. Service providers are also expanding at the edge, growing their edge infrastructure 2x faster than their core infrastructure, enabling them to support increasing demand from enterprises.
- Digital leaders are interconnecting with 10 times as many partners, enabling them to ride the wave of digital transformation and enjoy best-of-breed services from a vast pool of service providers and partners. The trend has been tracked across 12 industries and three regions for traditional companies, born in the cloud, service providers, and even hyperscale providers.
- Among industries, the financial services sector is expected to deploy more than 50% of enterprise interconnection bandwidth, with manufacturing as the second-largest industry.
- The public sector, healthcare and life sciences, industrial services and transportation industries are expected to experience the fastest digital infrastructure growth, which is forecast to drive a 48% or more CAGR in interconnection bandwidth from 2020 to 2024 globally. By 2028, the global infrastructure edge footprint will be 40 gigawatts, with 63% supporting healthcare, manufacturing, energy, retail, and transportation. These industries that were previously lagging in interconnection adoption are now leading in interconnection growth rate because of the pandemic.
“Metros across the world have been building out and transforming their digital infrastructure to help manage the shift to a digital first economy,” said Andrew Eppich, managing director, Equinix Canada. “Interconnections within Toronto and Montreal are accelerating at a faster pace than almost all metros in the Americas. It is critical that Equinix continues to help fuel this acceleration by investing in and growing our portfolio of solutions, not only in these metros, but across Canada. Our goal is to bring the best of Equinix to Canada and bring the best of Canada to the world.”
“While COVID has forced businesses to innovate in many ways, by both expanding existing and introducing new digital services, the infrastructure underpinning these services must keep pace,” said Claire Macland, senior vice president of marketing, Equinix. “As a result, savvy businesses are now moving four times faster than pre-pandemic levels in deploying this necessary digital infrastructure.”
Additional Resources
- Global Interconnection Index Volume 5 [report]
- GXI Vol. 5 Blog [blog]
- Equinix Canada: A Global Gateway to Advancing Digital Business [blog]
- The Future of Digital Leadership [report]
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. Equinix 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® data centers 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 data centers; 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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