By Business & Finance 
Why hybrid multicloud is the building block to a futureproof digital infrastructure. Guest blog by Maurice Mortell, Managing Director Ireland and Sustainability Lead, EMEA, Equinix
Over the past 18months, there have been monumental changes in the way people conduct business. A 2021 IDC Technology Spotlight report sponsored by Equinix, observed an accelerated adoption of cloud, both on-premises private cloud and public cloud, to help enterprises in Ireland capture maximum value and modernize their applications and data.
Given the high stakes, the case for wide scale deployment of robust digital infrastructure couldn’t be more pronounced. The good news is that, across Europe, 62% of organizations plan to increase or sustain their spend on public and private cloud services. Moreover, 72% of organizations plan to increase or sustain their spending on connectivity and networking infrastructure, to support their move to the cloud, according to the report.
It’s easy to see why. Cloud solutions provide enterprises with a better foundation of lower costs and greater business and innovation flexibility. IT leaders are now looking at their budgets to accelerate their cloud agenda from a mere planning and implementation stage to a more urgent mandate.
By aggregating the prevailing sentiments of IT decision makers in Ireland, the report highlights some of the challenges facing businesses. The report also shows that the unprecedented demand for an acceleration of digital transformation across Irish enterprises is resulting in the majority of organizations planning to increase the number of applications in either private or public cloud. In Ireland, this acceleration will result in the value of the public cloud services market in Ireland rising to $1.2 billion by 2024, up from $499 million in 2019, growing in double digits at a CAGR of 19.4%.
Taking Digital Infrastructure to the Next Level to Accelerate the Digital Economy in Ireland
The IDC Technology Spotlight, sponsored by Equinix, provides an overview of the current economic and digital challenges that Irish enterprises face. It investigates how leading organizations are embracing hybrid and multicloud strategies to build business resilience and accelerate digital transformation.
Simplifying the journey to the cloud
Enterprises will continue to need greater digital infrastructure capacity such as data centers, computing and networking. However, they are increasingly seeking cloud-centered architectures to provide those services.
Shifting to a hybrid multicloud strategy sounds easy in principle, but there are a number of challenges that CIOs need to address when moving to the cloud. IT legacy systems, connectivity and network optimization, access to multiple clouds are some of the issues that a lot of enterprises in Ireland still grapple with. Additionally, the exponential growth of data makes it increasingly difficult for Irish executives to keep pace with innovation with traditional IT systems and on-premises data centers. While there are some challenges associated with pivoting and integrating the cloud strategy, forward-thinking Irish enterprises have realized that their ability to generate digital revenues depends largely on the resilience, flexibility and scalability of their infrastructure, as well as software and data assets.
As a result of this, an increasing number of Irish organizations are using hybrid and multicloud strategies at the core to optimize operations and enable digital transformation.
Learning from cloud-based transformations
The findings identified in the IDC report only reinforce Equinix’s ambition to be the guiding light in helping organizations expedite their digital transformation. Our leading principle? Embrace hybrid and multi-cloud strategies with purpose and don’t look back. To this end, our award-winning Equinix Fabric will be pivotal in providing enterprises with simple and ubiquitous ways to connect to the cloud, networks and rich digital ecosystems across Ireland and the globe. No longer just for cloud connectivity, Equinix Fabric establishes a globally connected footprint of services that enables digital leaders to transform their businesses as they connect everything and everyone that matters to their business.
For instance, Aon wanted to build an IT infrastructure ready for disruption which enabled their business to continue operating seamlessly and prioritize their customer needs. The pandemic created a massive shift to remote working last year, but Aon was able to pivot and support 100% of their workforce remotely without discounting service quality. They were able roll out new capabilities at a time when many companies were struggling to keep employees connected and remain productive.
All this was made possible by the Equinix Fabric which facilitated building digital infrastructure to be ready for disruption. By harnessing the power of the Equinix platform, they could bring together and connect core infrastructure globally, in a highly secure and cost-effective manner. This case study is just an example of our work to deliver significant efficiency and competitive gains for diverse clients.
Staying ahead of the curve
Enterprises that don’t invest now in the digital infrastructure required to compete in an increasingly mobile and competitive economy, will ultimately be left behind. With our experience of 10,000 customers worldwide, our local and global teams have built up the expertise, tools and best practice to help any company in any industry, no matter where they are on their cloud and transformation journey, often starting with a customized Digital Edge Strategy Briefing – DESB.
So, adding it all up, companies will increasingly move to usage-based IT services, with colocation at the heart of the solution for those looking to optimize their IT infrastructure and save money.
Download the IDC Report to learn about how Enterprises across Ireland can benefit from Cloud-Enabled Digital Infrastructures, and how the continued evolution of Digital Infrastructure will drive the Digital Economy forward.
