Every business is a digital business these days, which suggests a massive move online across all sectors.
Yet many companies are actually moving away from the internet as they seek a more efficient and secure ways of exchanging data.
A new report from data centre operator Equinix maps the astonishing growth of global data. Its Global Interconnection Index measures ‘interconnection bandwidth’ – private data exchange between companies off the public internet.
This is now by far the biggest means of data exchange and will soon be ten times as big as the internet – and it is growing twice as fast.
“Businesses that rely on the public internet are increasingly finding it to be falling below expectation,” Russell Poole, managing director for Equinix in the UK, told BusinessCloud.
“The sheer amount of data in use requires companies to adjust their IT strategy to cope with the deluge.
“Persistent end-user performance issues, security concerns, unplanned IT costs and diminishing returns are all signs that IT architecture is struggling to keep pace with digital business.”
Bypassing the public internet provides increased security as companies connect within the confines of a data centre, as opposed to over the public internet which is susceptible to cyber-attacks.
This shift has helped allay fears around cloud adoption where the key concern continues to be around security.
“The demand for high-performance, direct and secure interconnection is on the rise, as it brings a solution that the internet cannot compete with,” said Poole.
“Interconnection brings the parties exchanging data closer to each other, at the digital edge, where these interactions are actually happening in real time.”
Equinix’s customers include electronic stock market operator Nasdaq, which uses its data centres to ensure its indexes and data feeds are updated in real time.
“Conducting financial transactions in real time is business critical when latency of a fraction of a second can have multimillion pound implications,” said Poole.
The Global Interconnection Index report found that despite Brexit, London is still the most important market in Europe with regards to data.
Despite the political uncertainty, London accounts for more than 35 per cent of Europe’s private data exchange growth.