Recent technological advances, such as the advent of the cloud and improvements in the areas of global communications, commodity storage and processing speed, give organizations the ability to store data anywhere in the world and manage it remotely. While these advances have undeniable benefits, they’ve also created drawbacks for global organizations, which must contend with an ever-widening set of data regulations. These regulations govern the acquisition, storage and processing of any personally identifiable information associated with customers and employees, as well as the critical operational data associated with utilities, urban infrastructure and transportation. For data security experts, this means increased demands and a heightened workload.

An interconnected world that promotes connectivity and cooperation creates growth opportunities. In Asia-Pacific, the demand for connectivity is obviously growing. According to the Global Interconnection Index, published by Equinix, Interconnection Bandwidth in Asia-Pacific is expected to grow 46% per annum to reach 1,120 Tbps of installed capacity, approaching nearly a quarter (22%) of global traffic.

5G is the fifth-generation of wireless broadband technology and is poised to revolutionize the networking industry by providing an unimaginable level of innovation. The first commercial launches of 5G products and services are rolling out this year and the recent Ericsson Mobility Report estimates that by 2023 there will be 1 billion 5G subscriptions, accounting for approximately 20% of all mobile data traffic.

The enterprise faces evolving challenges as the Internet of Things (IoT), big data and tightening regulatory compliance continuously alter the digital landscape. The Equinix and Microsoft Azure Alliance has identified Azure hybrid and public cloud use cases that are in high demand by enterprise customers.

As encouraged as we are by the growth of the channel program, the high caliber of trusted channel relationships we are talking about don’t develop overnight. Becoming a channel company is not about launching a few initiatives and occasionally checking in on how things are going, it’s a commitment from Equinix to change our DNA.

AWS CloudHSM is designed for organizations that formerly used HSMs to manage encryption keys in their own data centers and would like to continue in the same vein by using HSMs provided and maintained by AWS. With CloudHSM, HSMs purchased, provisioned and managed by an organization within their own data centers are replaced by HSMs purchased, provisioned and managed by Amazon.

With smart transportation using smart flow systems, we can assess traffic flows in real time thanks to sensors and video capture, to then adjust intervals based on dynamically-calculated data to respond to medians and peaks. The algorithm used to calculate intervals needs to be sophisticated, factoring in many data sets.

Cloud technology has enabled enterprises to scale their access to multiple applications and software services on a usage-based pricing model, and it’s led to exponential increases in the volume of data produced, both on-premises and in the cloud. So it makes perfect sense that cloud storage would be one of the next major growth markets.

The careful global expansion we’ve undertaken for two decades is about being where our customers are taking their businesses. The products and services we introduce, from the Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric™to Equinix SmartKey™, are a direct response to what customers tell us they need. And when we think about the future, we’re not aiming to just keep up with our customers’ ambitions, we want to stay several steps ahead.

Last Thursday, Equinix held global 20th Anniversary celebrations all around the globe. This was a big day for the company, and we felt it was important to take some time to appreciate the milestone before getting back to business.