Recently, we met with the CIO of a major U.S. city. When asked about his vision for the future, he made one point very clear: He wants the city to get out of the data center business. He knows that shifting this burden would free him to focus on what really matters: Delivering better service for citizens.
We’ve heard the same thing from other state and local agencies throughout the country. They recognize the need to build for the future, but they know they can’t do that with their legacy infrastructure hanging around their necks. Their on-premises data centers lock them into a certain way of doing things. Upgrading those data centers is a slow and complex process—assuming they can even find room in the budget to pay for those upgrades.
To deliver the innovative, on-demand services that citizens expect, public sector agencies need to modernize their IT infrastructure. Many of the agencies we’ve met with are considering public cloud services to help them do that. But to get the best results, agencies must be careful about how they access cloud services.
What are the challenges of cloud-first for state and local agencies?
While it’s true that cloud can offer the flexibility and scalability many agencies currently lack, there are potential drawbacks that aren’t obvious to first-time cloud customers. In recent years, many enterprises have learned the hard way that going all-in on cloud isn’t always the best move. State and local agencies need to learn from these experiences to avoid repeating them.
For one thing, there’s mounting evidence that cloud services aren’t cost-effective for every workload. Agencies that think the public cloud is an easy way to stretch their IT budgets will likely end up disappointed.
Also, moving data into cloud-native storage can result in loss of control over that data. Agencies may not have a say in where their data is stored or how it’s protected. This is especially troubling for agencies that need to handle citizens’ sensitive personal data.
Finally, the high costs and loss of control could limit infrastructure flexibility. A true hybrid multicloud platform is about balancing the unique needs of different workloads. However, when it’s difficult to move workloads from one cloud to another—due to technical complexity or high data egress fees—then agencies won’t be able to pick the right environment for each workload. Without this flexibility, the benefits of hybrid multicloud will remain out of reach.
How does colocation enable smarter IT modernization for state and local agencies?
Many agencies are learning that colocation services can help them balance the flexibility and scalability of public cloud with the control and security of an on-premises environment.
A colocation service provider rents space and power inside a data center to many different customers. This meets the goal of helping agencies get out of the data center business; instead of building and maintaining private data centers, they can leave that to the experts. They can also shift from high up-front CAPEX to OPEX payments that fit more easily into their budgets.
Also, leading colocation providers are consistently investing in improvements to make sure their data centers are ready for what the future holds. Colocation customers benefit from these improvements automatically, instead of having to invest their own budgets to make improvements. For instance, Equinix has rolled out liquid cooling to 100+ data centers across 45+ metros, an important step toward helping our customers support high-density workloads like AI.
What separates a leading colocation provider like Equinix?
Think of colocation data centers like hotels. The value of a five-star hotel comes from the nicer amenities, but also from the location. It’s much more likely to be in a prime spot within the city. For example, it may be within walking distance of fine dining and entertainment. Those attractions aren’t owned by the hotel itself, but their proximity is still a benefit that many guests enjoy.
It’s the same with a leading colocation provider like Equinix. An Equinix IBX® colocation data center can help state and local agencies deploy in the right locations to access our dense partner ecosystem, connect with multiple cloud providers on demand and build out their disaster recovery strategies. It can also help agencies ensure proximity to end users at the digital edge—wherever their particular edge might be. This helps avoid latency, enabling high-performance services that meet citizens’ high expectations.
Ecosystem density
Equinix data centers serve as a digital gathering place. Our ecosystem includes thousands of service providers and enterprises, and customers benefit from direct proximity to all those partners. If an agency has a particular cloud or network provider they want to partner with, there’s a good chance that provider is already deployed in a nearby Equinix IBX facility. The agency will be able to connect directly to that provider from within the data center. Since data doesn’t have to leave the building to reach the partner, Equinix can provide secure, low-latency connectivity by default.
Cloud adjacency
Since Equinix offers more low-latency cloud on-ramps than any other colocation provider, our data centers enable a cloud-adjacent approach. This means that agencies can keep their infrastructure close enough to move copies of data into the cloud as needed. But, since their primary datasets reside on Equinix infrastructure that they control, they won’t have to worry about the privacy or cost issues that come from potential vendor lock-in.
Cloud adjacency keeps them free to build the multicloud strategy that best meets their needs. This could mean using multicloud to support disaster recovery or other risk mitigation strategies.
Digital services
Another factor that separates Equinix from other colocation providers is our portfolio of leading digital infrastructure services. These on-demand services include:
- Equinix Fabric®, which allows agencies to set private virtual connections to partners or between their own infrastructure in different locations. One important use case for Equinix Fabric is to simplify multicloud networking. Customers can spin up virtual connections to any major cloud provider in minutes.
- Equinix Network Edge, which offers virtual network devices from leading vendors. Deploying modernized network infrastructure helps agencies enable their data center migration and consolidation.
- Equinix Metal®, our dedicated bare metal solution, allows agencies to rapidly provision single-tenant compute, as well as high-performance storage from leading partners like Dell Technologies, NetApp and Pure Storage.
Learn more about how Equinix can help state and local agencies modernize their IT infrastructure and meet the digital expectations of their citizens: Visit us today.
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