The New Digital ToolKit: AI, Cloud, and Edge Computing Reshape Asia
- By Lachlan Colquhoun
- March 26, 2024
Network optimization and edge computing are delivering significant cost and capability benefits to regional and global organizations looking to digitize their operations in the Asia Pacific.
This was one of the points of consensus from the recent CDOTrends and Equinix webinar, 'Capitalizing on Asia’s Digital Imperative: IT Strategies for Maximizing Sustainable Growth,' where panelists and technology leaders discussed key digitization challenges.
The panel heard how organizations want to digitize their operations to make them more cost-efficient and use technology to reach new customers with new services.
AI offered both possibilities by streamlining operations at scale and harnessing the power of data to drive insights and deliver fresh applications.
Cost containment and innovation
Jeremy Deutsch, the Asia Pacific President of Equinix, said that many organizations were enjoying these benefits by tailoring their IT infrastructure using a "digital toolkit" that combined AI, hybrid cloud, edge computing, and network optimization.
"We're consistently seeing that companies that take a network optimization approach see up to a 30% reduction in their network costs," Deutsch said in the webinar.
“And they are often seeing a five-time increase in the amount of bandwidth they have available, so they are getting a reduction in costs, and this huge increase in throughput is really adding a lot of benefit to the architecture, which frees up funds that can be invested in things like AI. Even if budgets are flat, it doesn’t mean that innovation has to stop.”
Localized latency
Equinix is expanding its regional data center offering with new facilities in Malaysia, Indonesia, and India. This would help the capabilities of organizations that need low latency for localized operations and those needing to reach new markets with new digital products.
“Even if budgets are flat, it doesn’t mean that innovation has to stop.”
“When you are looking at IoT, collecting that data is mission critical and really is corporate intelligence if it is applied with an AI or machine learning model,” said Deutsch.
“Bringing it back to the edge is also about the ability to deploy that infrastructure in multiple locations. It’s no good just to centralize it in one location anymore, and people are really pushing it to the edge to make sure those services are available in the markets that are as close to users as possible.”
This needed to be done, said Deutsch, in a way that was "repeatable" in different markets worldwide.
“You don’t want to have to customize those deployments every time,” he said. "You want to have them at a point where you can rinse, repeat, and re-use."
At the same time, however, edge computing in different markets invariably requires a hybrid multi-cloud strategy, sometimes for reasons around data sovereignty.
“Organizations are not connecting to one cloud; they are connecting to multiple clouds and sometimes more than one network service provider," said Deutsch.
“They are even at the point where they are connecting directly with supply chain and business partners in one of our facilities and leveraging connectivity between themselves across multiple geographies.”
Opportunities
Connectivity has always been important but is even more the "lifeblood for digital commerce" in today’s environment.
“Making sure you can extend that connectivity to the edge has become critically important,” said Deutsch.
"You have markets that Equinix is entering at the moment, such as Indonesia, which has over 270 million people and a very high rate of digitization. This is a great business opportunity for both domestic organizations and multi-nationals, and they want to be able to offer services directly in this market."
These components comprised the "toolkit" for organizations to factor into their expansion plans.
"CIOs can now deploy their infrastructure in an easy fashion, which is ultimately what this is about,” said Deutsch.
"And as everybody knows, we are being asked to do more with less, and that is always going to be a challenge. So making sure it is repeatable helps reduce the costs of the rollout, but it also delivers consistency and also enables innovation."
To watch the entire Equinix webinar, featuring its partners Dell Technologies and KPMG China, click here.
Image credit: iStockphoto/Bet_Noire
Lachlan Colquhoun
Lachlan Colquhoun is the Australia and New Zealand correspondent for CDOTrends and the NextGenConnectivity editor. He remains fascinated with how businesses reinvent themselves through digital technology to solve existing issues and change their business models.