Accelerating digital business in Mexico

The Covid-19 pandemic has become a measuring instrument to know how prepared private and public companies are on the path of digital transformation. Organizations have had to respond immediately by developing and implementing digital solutions, automating processes and solutions in the cloud. In addition, they have worked on supporting employees to carry out remote work and make them feel safe – all of that while we have tried to maintain the productivity and efficiency throughout our companies. We’ve seen three years of digital transformation in three months [i].

Though all these changes set the path to the future of digital infrastructure, after more than a year of pandemic, companies are now looking back to understand what worked well, what were the lessons learned and how they can turn all that urgent adaptation into a more structured and long-term IT strategy.

In the Equinix Global Tech Trends Survey 2020-21 (GTTS), we obtained highly relevant information from more than 100 IT decision makers from different companies in Mexico. Below, I share some of the most important findings on how COVID-19 has impacted the digital infrastructure for companies which operate – or are willing to operate – in the country, such as the benefits and advances of 5G, the use and benefits of interconnection, among others:

• Acceleration of digital transformation: Around half of the digital leaders in Mexico have accelerated their digital transformation plans (52%) and increased IT budgets (53%) due to the pandemic. Two-thirds plan to move more of their business to the cloud due to COVID-19.
• Redesign of the architecture for remote work: 61% of digital leaders believe there will be long-term changes to where and how people work within their organization. More than half (56%) of digital leaders in Mexico say they needed to restructure their IT infrastructure to switch to remote work during the pandemic.
• Use of interconnection for success: Almost 8 out of 10 IT decision makers in Mexico agree that interconnection can help them gain a competitive advantage in the market. A similar proportion (75%) also see interconnection as a key enabler of digital transformation. According to the respondents, the main benefits of interconnection are improved network optimization (56%), facilitation of digital transformation (54%), and greater connectivity flexibility (45%). To put it in perspective, if a company has multiple cloud solutions, for example,  they can use interconnection to have easier, faster, and private access to those cloud providers, which can be a kickstart to broader digital transformation.
• Discovering 5G: When we look at the data reveled by the GTTS, approximately 1 in 3 (38%) IT decision makers in Mexico feel that the implementation of 5G in the country is progressing well. There is also a significant proportion (26%) who feel that they are progressing slowly. The 5G deployment in Mexico is scheduled to kick off in 2021. According to the Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFT, or Federal Institute of Telecommunications), in 2021 they will put out to bid almost 100 MHz for 5G; in 2022 another 100 MHz in various bands, and in 2023 even more [ii]. It will be just the beginning, for sure, and the idea is that 4G and 5G will co-exist for a long time.
• Investment in agility and flexibility: 4 out of 10 IT decision makers in the country expect that the tendency in Mexico to adopt digital transformation and new technologies will grow more than 6% in the next year. A third of IT decision makers in Mexico say their organization will have to reinvent its investment strategy in digital transformation and adoption of new technologies in the wake of COVID-19.

The challenges in Mexico’s path to digital transformation are not inconsiderable but are neither without long-term reward. Going digital will require expertise, investments, and extensive coordination among the multiple stakeholders. Companies’ will need software-defined automated infrastructure and the capability of connecting all the different parties of the ecosystem, to make sure that the gears that support this strategy are moving seamlessly.

Within Platform Equinix®, all the right places, partners and possibilities co-exist within a single, coherent digital framework. Platform Equinix allows you to access all the partners you need to achieve your digital transformation goals, even if those stakeholders and partners are distributed among multiple clouds or locations over the world. That’s where our Equinix Fabric solution comes in hand, allowing you to connect seamlessly to all the ecosystem you need and can find inside Platform Equinix over more than 50 strategic metros around the globe.

Over the past 12 months, we have witnessed the digital divide growing between those with a digital transformation plan and those who were less prepared. So, my question for you is: which of those are you? While the pandemic isn’t over yet, we hope that these insights can provide good guidance for you and your company’s digital strategy, so that you can be on the bright side of this forecast. And, of course, you can count on Equinix during this journey towards the future.

If you want to check out more insights – either global or local – access the complete version of the Equinix Global Tech Trends Survey 2020-21.

[i] https://publications.iadb.org/publications/spanish/document/Reporte-Ciberseguridad-2020-riesgos-avances-y-el-camino-a-seguir-en-America-Latina-y-el-Caribe.pdf

[ii] https://www.consumotic.mx/opinion/ift-quiere-darle-velocidad-al-5g/