By now, I’m sure you’ve heard a lot about digital transformation, but what does it really mean, beyond being one of the latest business buzzwords? To paraphrase from the masterclass presentation I gave at Collision 2021, digital transformation is the ability for a business to scale, grow and adapt to change nimbly—where, when and how it needs to. In an economy where going global is an important goal for many businesses, a digital transformation strategy can help enterprises get the global digital infrastructure they need to pursue that goal, quickly and inexpensively.
As shown by our acquisition of 13 data centers from Bell Canada in 2020, Equinix remains dedicated to helping Canada become a hub for global digital business. As the leading data center and interconnection services provider in Canada, with a presence in eight metros from coast to coast, we have the presence needed to help Canadian businesses go global quickly, while also enabling global businesses to expand into a new market that can help unlock the promise of the entire Americas region. Canada’s commitment to data privacy and sovereignty—as shown by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)—makes it an attractive expansion target for European and British businesses that are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The timing for this investment could not have been better. Digital transformation and global expansion were both important priorities even before the COVID-19 pandemic; now, considering how the pandemic has redefined industries across the world, the timeline to pursue these priorities has accelerated. According to the Equinix 2020-21 Global Tech Trends Survey, 47% of IT decision-makers globally said their companies have accelerated their digital transformation plans as a result of COVID-19. Meanwhile, the Equinix Global Interconnection Index (GXI) Volume 5 demonstrates the benefits of making digital a priority during a time of disruption: the GXI found that digital leaders are moving 4.5X farther ahead, while traditional business is still trying to get its bearings.
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To enable digital transformation on a global scale, prioritize places, partners and possibilities
Success in the modern economy is all about being able to scale globally, spin up offerings quickly to take advantage of new opportunities, and provide an exceptional experience for end users. None of these goals can be accomplished without digital transformation. However, knowing exactly where to start when pursuing digital transformation isn’t always straightforward.
At Equinix, we believe that any effective digital transformation strategy must include digital infrastructure in all the right places, a digital ecosystem featuring interconnections with all the right partners, and digital edge compute capabilities that help unlock all the right possibilities. Equinix is uniquely positioned to help Canadian companies break through the limitations of their legacy infrastructure to optimize all three aspects of their digital transformation.
Understanding the limitations of legacy infrastructure
The reason digital transformation is so imperative today is that many businesses are still using legacy infrastructure that makes it more difficult for them to compete in a digital-first world. This centralized, siloed approach to infrastructure is inherently prone to issues such as:
- High latency: Not having digital infrastructure where you need it causes poor response time, bottlenecks and degraded performance.
- WAN complexity: Complicated WAN topologies scale very slowly and are difficult to troubleshoot any time something goes wrong.
- Cloud performance: Hybrid multicloud creates opportunities, but it’s difficult to connect to cloud providers using fixed, siloed networks.
- Operational risk: Shifting traffic to the public internet can help reduce costs and increase speed, but it also creates serious cybersecurity implications.
- Rigid infrastructure: It’s difficult to seize timely business opportunities when your infrastructure can’t scale quickly.
How the Equinix approach helps overcome these limitations
With Platform Equinix®, enterprises can modernize their digital infrastructure to solve for each of the issues listed above.
Localize traffic
To address latency, there’s no substitute for physical proximity. Equinix helps provide the proximity enterprises need to enable global expansion, because we’re a global company ourselves: our customers can take advantage of more than 235 Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers spread across 65 metros in 27 countries on five continents.
Besides the benefits of Equinix as the premier global data center brand, when we listed up our top locations globally to mitigate latency and address the global community of digital content creators, they were everywhere we wanted to be.”- Don Bustin, CTO, AMPD
Optimize the network
Reduce complexity in your networks by implementing points of presence and digital edge nodes that help you move traffic to the right partner at the right time, in the right place. Our presence in eight metros across Canada allows businesses to connect with their customers and partners while also keeping their data within the country.
Simplify your cloud strategy
Take advantage of everything cloud has to offer using software-defined interconnection via Equinix Fabric™. Connect with the service providers that support the use cases that matter most to you, no matter where in the world their cloud on-ramps are located. In Canada, our core and edge metro strategy allows businesses to interconnect with hyperscale cloud and SaaS providers from our core cloud hubs in Toronto, Montreal and Calgary, while using our edge hubs in Vancouver, Kamloops and Winnipeg to get seamless access to customers, devices and places of business in the local markets.
Equinix Is Bringing New Services to Canadian Metros
Peer directly with ecosystem partners
Interconnect directly with your most crucial ecosystem partners for simplified, consistent data exchange. Offload traffic to the public internet only when it makes sense to do so, while keeping your most vulnerable data protected.
Leverage business ecosystems
Equinix’s partner ecosystem is made up of 1,800+ network service providers and 3,000+ cloud and IT service providers. Interconnecting quickly and easily to this deep bench of partners can put you in a position to capitalize on opportunity when and where it arises.
At Kyndryl, we design, build, manage and modernize our customer’s mission-critical workloads. Today, those mission-critical systems are changing with digitalization, cloud and an increased focus on security. This means we’re driving massive transformation strategies with our customers, under the watchful eye of stability and security. We can’t do any of it without a strong network of partners, including partners like Equinix, who understand the value in digital ecosystems and share our belief that we’re stronger when we work together.”- Farhaz Thobani, Managing Director, Kyndryl Canada
Industry use case: Self-driving vehicles
Self-driving cars rely on artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) models that must be trained using massive amounts of data from vehicles and other sensors. Metro edge nodes help move this data from end units to core data centers in near real-time, and then push algorithm updates from the data center back to the vehicles. This is one example of a complex use case that would be difficult even under the best of circumstances; without digital transformation to optimize infrastructure, ecosystems and edge nodes, it would be effectively impossible.
Equinix helps Canadian businesses take on the world
Equinix is the world’s digital infrastructure company™, and global digital leaders trust us as the foundation for their success. We are dedicated to helping our Canadian customers scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences and multiply their value.
Read the Global Interconnection Index for more valuable Equinix insights on digital infrastructure.
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View the video below for a replay of Sanjeevan Srikrishnan’s session from Collision 2021.
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