REDWOOD CITY, Calif.,
Sept. 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --
Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the world's digital
infrastructure company™, has found there has been a significant
year-on-year leap in companies planning to move business-critical
applications to the cloud, despite cybersecurity concerns.
The need to remain competitive and cater to increased user
demands has prompted a 15% jump to 37% of companies saying they
plan to move business-critical applications to the cloud in
2020-21, compared to the previous year. As digital leaders build
robust digital infrastructures to ensure future success, it is
estimated that almost half (47%) of their IT infrastructure
globally is now on the cloud, despite ongoing concerns over cloud
security. These findings come from Equinix's annual global study of
the views of 2,600 IT decision-makers across the Americas,
Asia-Pacific and EMEA—the Equinix
2020-21 Global Tech Trends Survey (GTTS).
Since the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the risk of
cyberattacks has greatly expanded at the digital edge. Cybercrime
costs the world economy more than $1
trillion with the average cost to organizations estimated to
be more than half a million dollars per
incident. Risk has been compounded by the large number of
companies quickly shifting network capacity to cater to increasing
volumes of remote worker data traffic. This has prompted a surge in
cloud migration and broad implementation of cloud-based digital
infrastructure as part of a hybrid infrastructure strategy.
Balancing cybersecurity concerns with cloud adoption in a
digital-first world
Jennifer Cooke, Research
Director, Edge Strategies, IDC, states: "Shifts in population
centers, the increasing occurrence of cyberattacks, rapidly
expanding data volumes and compliance needs, the creation of
business ecosystems, and the transformation to digital business,
have been driving the need for a new approach to digital
infrastructure. These market forces are driving IT leaders to
consider the best strategies and prioritize investments across the
digital core, edge, and exchange of data."
The GTTS found 70% of respondents believe migrating
to the cloud is a top priority, with 80% focused on digitizing
their IT infrastructure. This move is not being made lightly,
with the threat of data leaks/cyberattacks as a result of increased
cloud adoption being perceived as one of the biggest threats to
organizations in all three regions: 52% AMER,
50% AP, 45% EMEA.
These concerns are not without merit. The Global
Interconnection Index (GXI) Volume 4, a market study published by
Equinix, revealed a growth in the number of user devices and cloud
resources, meaning organizations have to be aware of distributed
security risks such as DDoS attacks, which have grown over
270% year-over-year.
Michael Montoya, Chief
Information Security Officer, Equinix, said: "Digital
transformation is essential for business survival. Every company is
becoming a software company and the pandemic has accelerated the
need for digital transformation. Indeed, findings from the 2021
Gartner® Board of Directors Survey* show 69% of
boards accelerated their digital business initiatives in the wake
of COVID-19.
"Moving to the cloud is at the heart of this transformation.
However, as our GTTS shows, many digital leaders remain nervous
about this migration, with IT decision-makers highlighting fears
around increased data leaks and security breaches.
"Cyber hygiene remains vitally important in the cloud. Equinix
offers a robust and interconnected platform which allows for the
direct and secure exchange of data between businesses. Equinix
Fabric enables connectivity to global digital business ecosystems
and a myriad of cloud service providers. As a Chief Information
Security Officer, I now have the assurance that my cloud
deployments avoid the public internet and the associated cyber
risks."
Stacy Hayes, Co-Founder and
Executive Vice President, Assured Data Protection,
added: "Equinix and Equinix Fabric enabled us to deliver
our Rubrik Cloud services over a fast, scalable and secure
interconnection platform, with access to multiple hyperscaler
clouds, that will not only protect our customers' data today, but
also give them much more value from their data in the future."
Other findings of note from the Global Tech Trends Survey
include:
- 80% of IT decision-makers said digitizing their IT
infrastructure is a top priority, with 76% working to
improve user experience.
- Almost half (48%) of respondents said they believe the
threat of data leaks and cyberattacks as a result of cloud
migration to be one of the biggest threats globally.
- 81% of digital leaders said they are prioritizing
improving their organization's cybersecurity—a significant increase
from the 70% who said this in the 2019-20 edition of the
survey.
To read more about the Global Tech Trends Survey, or download
a copy, please visit:
https://www.equinix.com/resources/infopapers/equinix-tech-trends-survey
About the Equinix 2020-21 Global Tech Trends Survey
(GTTS)
The independent study, commissioned by Equinix, surveyed 2,600 IT
decision-makers in diverse enterprises across the Americas
(Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, U.S.), Asia-Pacific (Australia, China, Hong
Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore) and EMEA (Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UAE, UK). Respondents were selected
for participation from Dynata's online panel. The survey was
conducted online between December 17,
2020, and January 8, 2021.
*Gartner, Press Release, Gartner Says 69% of Boards of
Directors Accelerated Their Digital Business Initiatives Following
COVID-19 Disruption, September 30,
2020.
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of
Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally
and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
Additional Resources
- Equinix 2020-21 Global Tech Trends Survey [Ebook]
- Keeping Critical Infrastructure Safe from Cyber Attacks
[Blog]
- DDoS Extortion Attacks Are Driving Security Risks in 2021
[Blog]
- IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Equinix, Building Digital
Infrastructure to Achieve Business Advantage [doc #US47031620,
December 2020]
- Global Interconnection Index (GXI), Volume 4 [Report]
- Supercharging Cloud Security, Reliability and Scalability via
Interconnection [Blog]
- Equinix Vision Paper [Ebook]
About Equinix
Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) is the world's digital infrastructure
company, enabling digital leaders to harness a trusted platform to
bring together and interconnect the foundational infrastructure
that powers their success. Equinix enables today's businesses to
access all the right places, partners and possibilities they need
to accelerate advantage. With Equinix, they can scale with agility,
speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class
experiences and multiply their value.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve
risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from
expectations discussed in such forward-looking statements. Factors
that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to,
the challenges of acquiring, operating and constructing IBX data
centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix products
and solutions, unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the
integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into
Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenues from customers
in recently built out or acquired data centers; a failure to
complete any financing arrangements contemplated from time to time;
competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to
generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay
new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business
from our key customers; risks related to our taxation as a REIT;
and other risks described from time to time in Equinix filings with
the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see recent
Equinix quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, copies of which are available upon request
from Equinix. Equinix does not assume any obligation to update the
forward-looking information contained in this
press release.
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SOURCE Equinix, Inc.