The scope of digital infrastructure continues to expand as businesses develop and deliver innovative digital products and services. IT leaders need to build a solid foundation of digital infrastructure to support participation in the digital economy and ensure exceptional customer experiences. This can include positioning IT infrastructure in a vendor-neutral colocation data center with cloud on-ramps to improve latency and strengthen resiliency with direct, private connections to cloud providers. Doing so sets them up to re-architect their services for global digital delivery and allows them to access the ecosystems and capabilities they need to thrive in an environment of constant change.
Seven of our most popular blog posts answer key questions you may have about how to build the comprehensive digital infrastructure you need for the future. Read on to learn the answers.
1. What is digital infrastructure?
At its most basic level, digital infrastructure is about assembling and interconnecting physical and virtual technologies such as compute, storage, network, applications, and Everything as a Service (XaaS) platforms. These technologies are the foundation for your digital business and operations, setting you up to capitalize on opportunities and overcome challenges.
As the digital economy evolves, you must be ready for anything, including:
- Shifting to where new opportunities live—at the digital edge
- The increasing influence of developers and software-defined everything
- The growing importance of digital ecosystems to access a diverse group of partners and providers
Read the full blog post: What Is Digital Infrastructure?
2. What is a data center? What are different types of data centers?
While data centers have been around for decades, they continue evolving as technology advances. That means the traditional definition of a data center has morphed: It’s no longer just a place where a business or third-party provider houses IT infrastructure along with systems, networks, applications and overhead (space, power, cooling, racks, cabinets, cabling, etc.). Now, there are different types of data centers that meet specific requirements for various kinds of companies.
In addition, software-defined technologies are transforming data centers, and interconnection makes it possible to integrate different models of data center infrastructure. Further, businesses are meeting high sustainability standards while simultaneously accessing valuable digital services and business ecosystems.
Read the full blog post: What Is a Data Center? What Are Different Types of Data Centers?
3. What is interconnection?
Interconnection is the private exchange of data between multiple businesses. Network and internet service providers have been interconnecting in our vendor-neutral data centers since we were founded in 1998. Fast-forward to today, as vast amounts of data are transported worldwide and transactions take place faster than the blink of an eye. Interconnection powers digital business by overcoming latency and providing the fastest and most reliable direct connectivity among globally distributed exchange points—close to end users.
Read the full blog post: What Is Interconnection?
4. What Is bare metal? Is it a server or a cloud?
Diversification and geographic expansion often require different infrastructure models for running applications, high-performance processing, secure data storage and on-demand networking. One such model is bare metal, which gives companies complete control over server infrastructure while meeting increased demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and processing power.
Businesses deploy Equinix Metal®, our dedicated bare metal solution, to run mission-critical applications, serve highly distributed users, support bandwidth-intensive workloads, scale for fluctuating usage and process data-intensive workloads. The versatility of Equinix Metal helps companies solve challenges such as hybrid multicloud architectures, disaster recovery, and regulations and compliance, making it a vital component of digital infrastructure.
Read the full blog post: What Is Bare Metal? Is it a Server or a Cloud?
5. What is a cloud on-ramp?
Cloud services can help digital businesses unlock greater flexibility, cost-efficiency and innovation, but savvy IT leaders know that how they access those services matters. That’s where cloud on-ramps come in.
A cloud on-ramp is a direct, private connection offered by a cloud provider inside a vendor-neutral colocation data center, and accessible via either physical or virtual network infrastructure. It offers better performance, control and security. You can use cloud on-ramps to modernize your network infrastructure, unlock the power of cloud adjacent storage, optimize application development architecture and enable private AI.
Read the full blog post: What Is a Cloud On-Ramp?
6. What Is latency, and how can you address it?
When a system must wait for data to complete its transit and a delay occurs, it’s referred to as latency, or more specifically, network latency. And that’s a problem, especially with high-speed use cases like connected vehicles and high-frequency trading.
Latency is an unavoidable byproduct of distance. That’s why ensuring proximity in your digital infrastructure is essential. Using the right networking technology can also help. A private interconnection service such as Equinix Fabric® can help offset the impact of latency. Unlike the public internet, it allows your traffic to follow a direct route from source to destination—without having to share the connection with other traffic.
Read the full blog post: What is Latency, and How Can You Address It?
7. What Is multicloud networking? Why is it so important?
Multicloud architectures have become the predominant cloud infrastructure model for enterprises. Companies can optimize costs, prevent vendor lock-in and take advantage of unique capabilities and strengths of specific clouds with this approach.
Multicloud networking facilitates the transfer of data between different cloud environments, including public and private clouds. It ensures everything in a multicloud architecture works together as expected and delivers the best user experience for customers and employees.
Deploying cloud-adjacent networking resources can unlock the full potential of multicloud strategies with better network and application performance, at lower costs and without vendor lock-in. To take more ownership of your cloud-to-cloud networking, you can deploy networking functions like routers, firewalls and more in a central cloud-adjacent location and connect them privately and securely to your preferred clouds.
Read the full blog post: What Is Multicloud Networking? Why Is It So Important?
Stay tuned as digital infrastructure continues to evolve. You can look forward to interesting discussions about how digital businesses are using digital infrastructure and what it will look like going forward. You can subscribe to the Equinix blog on the landing page.
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