The Growing Need for a Risk-Adjusted Connectivity Ecosystem

In recent years the concept of digitization has exploded exponentially and globally. Content creation has been happening at an incalculable pace resulting in data-driven ecosystems all around us. Brick and mortar businesses are transforming into digital enterprises delivering online services and building massive data repositories, creating the need to fundamentally re-think the digital infrastructure underlying this trend.

This flood of data creation, combined with new, compute-intensive technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and predictive analytics, is increasing enterprise requirements for even larger technology stacks to store, compute, analyze and move the data. It has also fundamentally changed the requirements for connectivity required for enterprises to deliver their products and services to their customers.    

While the world’s largest hyperscale companies continue to purchase space, power and connectivity at an enormous scale, enterprise organizations are starting to ask, “How do I balance the ever-increasing complexity of computing, storage, connectivity with service delivery to end-users both now and for the long-term? How do I meet the demands and expectations of our customers across multiple platforms and geographies in a way that is scalable and does not introduce undo technical risk or avoidable cost?”

On one hand, enterprises need a home for scalable digital infrastructure in the form of a rapidly expanding number of servers, switches, routers, et cetera.  On the other hand, this digital infrastructure requires access to a myriad of networks to serve its end users. This requires a long-term view, particularly when it comes to data center space, power and access to critical in-building connectivity ecosystems similar to today’s hyperscale strategy and purchasing model.

Enterprises require a data center partner with a similar long view of scalable space, power, and sophisticated connectivity ecosystems all available in the same building. Conventional approaches small colocation deployments that rely on carrier hotels for network access are not built to serve this new dynamic technically or economically.  As the enterprise continues to increase investments in digital infrastructure so too are the requirements for a colocation partner to demonstrate it can enable a pristine experience from content to end user in a constantly scaling environment.  If your colocation deployment won’t fit into a carrier hotel then you either have to work with a provider that is embracing vital network deployment in their facility or pay to access the networks in a building you otherwise have no interest in.  The second scenario is where technical risk and wasted financial resources come in and are not sustainable in the face of ever-growing colocation demand.

QTS is in a unique position to serve this evolving dynamic. We have mega-scale data centers in all the major markets that can support large scale space and power deployments. We are also unique in our commitment to provide and grow connectivity ecosystems in these same buildings. This translates to a combination of mega infrastructure with access and connectivity to the world’s largest cloud providers, the world’s largest IP networks, Internet Exchanges, fiber providers, diverse transport paths and subsea cables.

It all comes back to data and innovation for customers

In an industry not generally known for innovation, QTS stands apart in our approach, and our customers are telling us through surveys and feedback channels that our focus on scale and network access are truly differentiating.

We know we are on track as evidenced by the company’s consistent financial performance and positive feedback we have been receiving across the industry from our customers, partners, analysts and Wall Street.

Frost & Sullivan recently chose QTS as the recipient of its Global Visionary Innovation Leadership Award. Following a five-month independent vetting process of 34 companies, QTS, who is not a Frost & Sullivan client, was chosen as the winner of the global award.

The award report (accessed here) highlights QTS’s key characteristics including its connectivity leadership and innovation that contributed to its selection.

Frost & Sullivan noted, “It is only fitting to say that QTS is a torchbearer when it comes to addressing this connectivity predicament. With its pioneering vision, the company has created multiple network access points (NAPs); which are essentially data centers acting as ubiquitous global interconnection hubs that allow services utilizing subsea cables to peer and interconnect in an ideal manner.”

For more information, check out this white paper on evolving enterprise connectivity requirements.