Network Edge Opens a Path for New Business in Latin America

We are excited to announce that Equinix recently launched Network Edge services in the São Paulo metro area, addressing the growing opportunities in this increasingly important market. Network Edge from Equinix will smooth the path for the growing number of multinational companies who want to establish a presence in Brazil.

São Paulo strategically located to reach Latin American customers

Our São Paulo data centers are the epicenter of one of the fastest growing regions for internet usage. According to the fourth annual Global Interconnection Index (GXI), Latin America leads the world in interconnection bandwidth capacity growth. Within Latin America, Brazil has embraced the internet like no other region in the world. It had the highest growth of internet users in South America from 2019 to 2020, the third largest video streaming user base in the world and third largest average amount of time spent using social media.[i] Brazil is also home to the largest economy in Latin America (and the 12^th largest in the world).[ii] This economy depends primarily on the services industry (financial, hospitality, and IT sectors), which contributes almost 65% to Brazil’s GDP.[iii] The manufacturing industry (automotive, oil and gas, steel, food and beverage, aerospace, chemical, cement) also makes a significant contribution to Brazil’s economy.

Equinix’s São Paulo data centers offer the only facilities in Brazil with space for large-scale colocation. They are home to 1,210+ companies, comprising a dense concentration of financial services firms, cloud and IT service providers, content and digital media providers, and social media platforms.

Multinational companies who want access to this thriving Latin American market will benefit from having a presence in Brazil, and São Paulo is the most strategic place to do it. São Paulo is the largest economic and industrial center in the southern hemisphere and the largest metropolitan area in the entire Americas regions, followed by Mexico City and New York City/Newark metros. [iv] 25% of Brazilian trade flows through São Paulo’s Port of Santos, the largest container terminal in Latin America.[v]

Using software instead of hardware changes everything

To keep increasing volumes of data traffic flowing, Brazil needs to be able to provide robust network hosting and connection services that support greater network agility and optimization to users. This has not always been easy in this region. Building and accessing a traditional network and IT infrastructure required hardware, which has historically been difficult and costly to import into Brazil, especially during the recent global COVID-19 pandemic.

With Network Edge, Equinix is making it easier to set up IT infrastructure in Brazil and consume virtual network services as simply as cloud services. Network Edge services eliminate the need to import physical networking equipment and give enterprises fast and easy access to virtual network functions (VNF) devices from industry-leading network functions virtualization (NFV) infrastructure vendors. Network Edge services seamlessly connect to and between cloud services leveraging SD-WAN and virtual routing VNF devices, as well as provide firewall and VPN security services. Enterprises no longer need to spend time and money operating and maintaining their own hardware.

Proximity to the cloud is critical to building digital infrastructures for new business

The cloud has enabled enterprise businesses to deliver services to customers all over the world and accelerate digital transformation. But, when cloud on-ramps are far from customers, application performance can suffer. Close physical proximity between employees, partners and customers and the cloud enables direct connectivity with lower latency, better performance and ultimately, a much better end user experience than the slow and unpredictable behavior of the public internet. In fact, the GXI estimates that interconnection bandwidth capacity between enterprises and cloud and IT service providers will grow at a rate of 74% in LATAM by 2023.

Network Edge makes it less expensive to do business in the cloud. By using Network Edge to access cloud ecosystems via Equinix Fabric™ software-defined interconnection, businesses can save on individual physical connections to each and every cloud provider and data transport costs by aggregating virtual connections to multiple clouds. With a modern, software-defined network, enterprise businesses can consume the bandwidth they need, dynamically reacting to changing business needs without incurring unnecessary operating costs. And the cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-database connectivity over Equinix Fabric reduces cloud data egress costs.

Increased network agility for multinationals

With Network Edge in São Paulo, enterprise customers from all over the world can interconnect with customers and partners through a broad range of agile virtual network services and devices. Multinational companies who want to establish a presence in Brazil to reach the 45 million customers who reside in the region, can now be closer to those customers than ever before, building digital infrastructure at scale to match any opportunity. And because multinationals can leverage Equinix’s digital infrastructure in São Paulo, they can save significantly on deploying their own hardware.

And Network Edge, in conjunction with Equinix Fabric, gives both regional and multinational businesses in Brazil the flexibility to directly access major partner ecosystems and more than 10,000 companies around the world on Platform Equinix. This includes network, internet, cloud and IT service, and content and digital media providers, social media platforms and financial services firms — the largest interconnected ecosystem in the industry.

Equinix São Paulo data centers also connect to even more companies and services via that links them directly and privately to our Rio de Janeiro International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers, home to a thriving group of oil, mining and major telecommunications companies colocated in those facilities. This LATAM digital corridor can also link Brazilian metros to North American metros such as Mexico City, Los Angeles, Dallas and Miami, and beyond.

See how easy it is to set up a Network Edge instance in this demo, or take advantage of a free trial to explore how Network Edge can work for your business.

[i] Telegeography, Datare Portal, IDC – Predictions Brazil 2021

[ii] Brazil Central Bank – Focus Economics (February 5^th, 2021)

[iii] The World Bank. Services, Value Added (% of GDP) (May 17, 2021)

[iv] OECD Library (June 16, 2020)

[v] InvestSP Investment Promotion Agency Why São Paulo | InvesteSP