As the year winds down, I reflect on the incredible amount of change that has washed across our world, reshaping entire industries and forever altering the way we experience life. And I marvel at how businesses, families and communities have responded to and embraced this change, with a level of resilience and innovation never seen before. The unprecedented rates at which data is being created, moved, analyzed, and stored during these past two years has only further accelerated the pace of innovation. For many people and businesses, it felt as though we woke up to a new reality almost overnight and are now adapting everything to align with the world’s digital-first requirements.
I believe we will look back upon this time as one of our greatest teachers, collectively pushing and challenging industries to envision and embrace new technologies and strategies and humanity to connect more deeply through empathy and appreciate the physical the technical wonders around us.
Digital tactics have long been a complement to our hands-on daily experiences. While we all knew digital adoption would continue to accelerate overtime, it is doubtful that any of us imagined a day where our physical world would come to a near halt. But it happened.
Overnight, digital replaced or reshaped nearly every aspect of our lives – becoming the only way families could connect for months on end; the only way for businesses to survive, a way for doctors to reach those in need, and for people to connect, learn and collaborate with coworkers and friends.
Digital became the world and will permanently be a dominant part of business, connection, and life. Today, our data-driven, digital reality is changing the way we live, reshaping our economies, and enabling our world. By this time next year, more than half of the global economy is expected to be based on or influenced by digital business models.
Even long-standing traditions have responded to the new world order as technology expands our horizons and our toolkit. Look no further than the transformation of the door-to-door selling of cookies by the Girl Scouts of America as an example of “sweet success”. The hand-scrawled, paper order forms and sidewalk tables staffed with smiling entrepreneurs have evolved to become digital. Sales through the app not only ensured the survival of a beloved fundraiser; the virtual sales platform enabled record sales for this 100+ year old institution. (In fact, 8-year-old cancer survivor Lilly Bumpus sold over 30,000 boxes of cookies this year alone.)
Despite a sense of isolation brought forth by the pandemic, the reality is our world is more interconnected and ecosystem-driven than ever before. Our role as the world’s digital infrastructure company is to continue to enable digital leaders on the work that matters and innovations that enrich our work life and planet.
As 2021 winds down, a glimpse at what’s behind us offers a host of clues for the opportunities that lie just ahead. The future of intelligence, personalization, industries, trust, work, and so much more is evolving before our eyes as disruption finds its way to every corner of the global economy. I am humbled that Equinix’s trusted platform, spanning 67 markets across the globe, is helping to power this future. And digital leaders are paving the way, unleashing the power of digital ecosystems through a software-defined and API-enabled platform and bringing innovation to life by delivering physical infrastructure at software speed.
It is our great privilege to be in service to so many on their digital transformation journeys. If the past two years are any indication of what’s possible, the future holds even greater promise for humanity and for our planet.
#inserviceto
Subscribe to the Equinix Blog