Evolving technology and data trends such as 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, data privacy and cloud are paving the path for significant IT and network architecture changes in 2019, according to Equinix.
“The market is at an inflection point, where the right digital strategies become the differentiator and source of competitive advantage for organizations. And for the first time in history, the technology to fully enable digital business is available to everyone,” says Brian Lillie, Chief Product Officer, Equinix.
Equinix’ Five Trends For 2019:
The Promise Of 5G
5G will open up possibilities of digital transformation especially in an IoT and AI-connected world. To prepare, operators are looking to optimize costs through open-source commodity networking hardware and virtualization of wireless networking stack. These efforts will create an Edge architecture to solve for cloud radio networks. This will in turn power radios through pools of virtualized network software. Investments will increase for revamping existing cellular building infrastructure and building of new edge infrastructure, as well as innovation in hardware and virtual wireless networking stacks for both performance and cost optimization.
The Rise Of Distributed AI Architectures
Next-gen architectures will break free from centralized locations. The growing use of AI in business and society will increase data usage exponentially. While first-generation AI architectures have historically been centralized, in 2019 enterprises will enter the realm of distributed AI architectures, where AI model building and model inferencing will take place at the local edge, physically closer to the origin source of the data. To access more external data sources for accurate predictions, enterprises will turn to secure data transaction marketplaces. They will also strive to leverage AI innovation in multiple public clouds without getting locked into a single cloud, further decentralizing AI architecture.
‘Un-Blocking’ The Chain
A network of networks will mature blockchain for greater business security and monetization. Block chain investments are growing at a CAGR of 73 percent, with a projected total spending of USD 11.7 billion by 2022, according to IDC. Enterprises will participate in multiple blockchain networks, thus creating a network of networks, something that allows them to simultaneously interact with multiple blockchain ecosystems.
Blockchain performance will become a more important requirement within the enterprise space, driven by the need to accommodate more than simple transaction data or as an element in applications where real-time performance and linkage with other data sources matter. Integration will become a challenge as enterprises combine legacy applications with multiple blockchain networks.
Maneuvering Data Privacy Maze
Changing data protection laws and heightened privacy concerns will inspire more progressive and distributed security processes. Many enterprises and SaaS providers are deploying mini-clouds to adhere to local data residence and compliance requirements. They are also looking at distributed data management architectures that require global networks and data fabrics in order to coherently manage these distributed mini-clouds.
Equinix predicts that in order to prevent data breaches and retain control, enterprises will consider new data management techniques that operate seamlessly on encrypted data. Enterprises will also consider new hardware-based virtualization technology that will prevent service providers from surveilling their customer’s data.
Interconnection To Tame Cloud Complexity
Hybrid multi cloud environments will increase the relevance of interconnection. Enterprises are now accessing SaaS, IaaS and PaaS solutions from multiple providers. 2019 will see the next level of challenges associated with hybrid cloud and multi cloud approaches. Enterprises will struggle with expanding their security perimeters, as well as integration and management issues as they pursue hybrid multi cloud architectures.
According to Equinix’ study Global Interconnection Index, interconnection bandwidth between enterprises and cloud, and IT providers is projected to grow 98 percent per annum through 2021, supporting businesses building out new digital services and migrating existing workloads to third party cloud platforms.
