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between vendors, developers and service providers.

As necessity is the mother of invention, let’s take a deep-

er look at why ICT infrastructure is evolving so quickly, and

then dive into how the relevant innovations are playing out

on a global scale.

Even if you are not all that keen on buzzwords, two that

have gained real substance in the past few years have been

“fast” and “agile.” For the purposes of this discussion, let’s

also throw “lean” into the mix.

In short, the most successful entities in the private sector

today tend to be the most agile, which allows them to become

quicker in their approaches to new trends and opportunities.

The lean aspect fuels agility and speed, as financial and opera-

tional restraints will be eased given the eradication of waste.

These are the firms that survive, and often thrive,

given the immense volatility of the global economy, as

well as the speed with which preferences and demands

change on a large scale.

Those trends mentioned in the beginning of this article

– globalization, enterprise mobility, the IoT, and big data –

have arguably come with the biggest impacts to the ways

in which enterprises and other organizations go about ICT

infrastructure provisioning. This is because they have among

the most complex network, storage, access, security, uptime,

and cost control demands.

Try to envision a small business in a rural area embracing

enterprise mobility with traditional ICT frameworks; we bet

you cannot, because it would not be possible. Cloud com-

puting, SDN, colocation and other advanced approaches to

ICT infrastructure have not only made it possible for most

entities to embrace enterprise mobility and other critically

important trends, but do so in a fast, agile and lean fashion.

Take public cloud as an example, which will generally be

an operational expenditure rather than a capital expendi-

ture, easing what would traditionally be massive strain on

budgets when a firm needed to overhaul its IT. Companies

also will almost always pay for only what they need, rather

than going overboard.

The speed with which public cloud solutions – includ-

ing IaaS – can be deployed in an organization once the final

contracts have been signed is also breathtaking. Whenever

the firm needs to adjust its provisioning, such as situations in

which demand either spikes or drops, it can do so with far less

trouble than trying to return or replace physical equipment.

The cloud strengthens corporate agility, efficiency and

speed for other reasons, while colocation data centers and

SDNs come with similarly positive impacts on these charac-

teristics of operations. With respect to those major trends

discussed above, these advanced infrastructure options fur-

ther improve a firm’s ability to embrace, optimize and capi-

talize on all of them.

Just as a note here, ICT is the crux because of how quickly

market competition has become rooted in the digital space.

This really only represents a minor part, but Statista ex-

plained that global ecommerce sales surpassed $1.2 trillion

in 2013 between business and consumers alone – not even

factoring in B2B. The segment of total gross domestic prod-

uct that digital commerce comprises is growing very fast and

is expected to accelerate further.

With the global economy seemingly moving in the right

direction, as well as the fact that another major recession

can strike at any time, there are so many opportunities and

risks out there today.

To capitalize on opportunities and mitigate risks in stride,

fast, agile and lean technologies are needed, and leading

players in ICT markets are making it happen.

Now, while all of the above assertions and explanations

should be enough to illustrate how complex, demanding and

rapidly evolving ICT infrastructure truly is, we did not even go

into other emerging trends. More efficient data center technol-

ogies that use renewables and minimize carbon footprints rep-

resent one major movement that is beginning to take shape.

Multi-tenant cloud computing environments are being

leveraged to reduce costs on an individualized basis, while

more valuable and rewarding colocation and interconnectiv-

ity environments are being erected by leaders in the field.

Add to this the fact that so many telecom companies and

others are beginning to migrate to SDN infrastructure, and

the direction in which the market is moving should be clear.

Telx’s latest strategies, objectives and achievements

represent how all of these matters are converging. Take,

for example, the 451 Research report on the company that

discussed Telx’s MarketplacePORTAL and other solutions,

as well as its improvements to service level agreements that

now guarantee 100 percent uptime and 24-hour cross-con-

nect provisioning.

This was made possible by the advancement of data cen-

ter, colocation and cloud computing facilities strategically

positioned in central commercial hubs. 451 Research’s Kelly

Morgan noted that Telx’s decision to start 2015 with two ex-

pansions in its leading market of New York will likely propel

it toward the expected 20 percent year-over-year revenue

growth this year.

This involved the Telx Trifecta of data center facilities –

NYC1 in Tribeca, NYC2 in Chelsea and NYC3 also in Tribeca,

which have dramatically increased the connectivity, power

and space it can now offer to clientele. These and other facil-

ities include densely interconnected meet-me room facilities

that help bring clientele together.

Furthermore, the Telx Cloud Xchange ecosystem of pub-

lic, private and hybrid cloud solutions, as well as managed

services, gives customers the edge when it comes to provi-

sioning, procurement and deployment.

In the coming years, businesses will need to ensure

that they are leveraging the most advanced, efficient, af-

fordable and powerful ICT infrastructure to survive and

thrive. Colocation, cloud computing, SDNs and other ad-

vanced data center options will be at the center of prog-

ress for years to come, regardless of whether trends tie

back to IT or telecommunications.

Anthony Rossabi is Executive Vice President of Market-

ing, Sales & Strategy at Telx.

May - June 2015 |

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