technology TUESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2015 Predictions of big trends impacting digital economy By Tony Bishop see major digital pay- that enables direct and secure con- ty, particularly for the data centers sider re-architecting their IT infra- data centers, can’t scale to get closer ment players realize nections between the multiple com- that serve as catalysts of the digital structure over the next 12 months. In to end users and deliver the high-per- rom the Internet of that the true value of ponents that must be in synch to economy. Data center operators know 2016, we’ll see more focus on reduc- formance connections users demand. Things to renew- the digital transaction exploit the real-time insights the IoT that has consequences in a fossil-fuels ing risks and minimizing exposure for Meanwhile, interconnection via the Fable energy princi- is in the customer data offers. That kind of interconnection based economy, with 84% of North corporate networks. Security in the public internet will continue to be ples, we’ll see our digital it provides, such as on ensures employees, partners and cus- American operators recently recogniz- cloud continues to be a growing con- plagued by questions about reliability economy transforming spending habits and tomers can get the information they ing a need to consider renewable cern for enterprises, which are realiz- and security. For all these reasons, before our eyes in 2016. shopping locations. need, in the right context, using the energy for meeting future energy ing that their own on-ramps to cloud 2016 will be a year that enterprises Here are my predictions. They will redesign their devices, channels and services they demands. In 2016, we’ll see more services, not the cloud providers increasingly design interconnection- networks to better prefer. Businesses will realize this, enterprises adopt renewable energy themselves, are their weakest links. oriented infrastructures to enable 1. Digital commerce will be trans- handle and analyze these non-pay- meaning robust interconnection will principles. Companies that rely on They also know that accessing cloud direct and secure links to cloud and formed. ment data elements, so they can bet- become a more prominent solution in electricity to supply power to critical services via the public Internet exac- network providers and various other The confluence of new payment ter position themselves for precise this space in 2016, as an intersection Internet infrastructure and maintain erbates those risks. As enterprises partners. In this interconnected era, platforms, big data and technologies customer targeting, such as personal- point between IoT, clouds and the operational reliability will continue to continue to evaluate their IT infra- companies will increasingly rely on such as real-time fraud detection and ized time and location-based offers enterprise becomes increasingly nec- reevaluate the energy efficiency of structure options, direct connection instantaneous interconnection with location-based services is transform- mixed with loyalty systems. essary. their data centers, adopt proven ener- will continue to prove to be a more each other to create value and suc- ing the digital payments industry. gy-saving techniques and evolve sus- consistent and secure tool for con- ceed. They’ll find the benefits of this Meanwhile, consumer expectations 2. The Internet of Things (IoT) will 3. Content providers will increas- tainability best practices. necting organizations to each other interconnection are real and quantifi- are only rising as digital payment dramatically impact IT networks. ingly bypass the Internet to meet and to the cloud. able. According to the recent options become more available, Record-breaking adoption and surging demand for capacity. 5. The enterprise will turn to multi- “Enterprise of the Future” report by banks transition to secure, chip- expansion of IoT devices and sensors The massive shift toward 3D, Super cloud interconnection strategies for HD, 4K and high dynamic range (HDR) cost savings. streaming technologies will present Multi-cloud strategies will be a huge challenges to networks and digi- huge part of the enterprise push in tal content providers in 2016. For 2016 toward improving production instance, the latest digital video workloads, achieving business agility, report from Sandvine indicates Netflix accelerating application performance streams used a whopping 36.5% of all and controlling costs. According to downstream traffic to North American the recent Forrester study, “The Total broadband households at prime view- Economic Impact of Equinix ing hours. But that kind of capacity Interconnection Solutions,” enterpris- demand is set to spike in 2016 as es realized major cost reductions with more households embrace new multi-cloud interconnection strate- streaming technologies that require gies that enabled them to deploy and up to four times the normal band- scale applications with lower-cost width. In addition, the Cisco Visual cloud service providers, compared to Networking Index points to even running those applications internally. more strains on networks and content Peering locally with cloud providers providers as YouTube, Netflix, Hulu through secure, direct interconnec- and other video streaming services tions that access and integrate multi- grow to make up 76% of consumer ple clouds enables organizations to Internet traffic by 2018. To handle provision cloud services quickly and these looming capacity demands, in provide an improved end-user experi- 2016 we’ll see more media companies ence. We believe enterprise adoption follow Netflix’s lead by shifting work- of multi-cloud interconnectivity will loads to the cloud and using intercon- continue to increase, as organizations embedded credit cards and mer- will continue to accelerate, resulting nection to optimize Internet applica- realize bypassing the public internet chants adopt new EMV terminals that in a flood of data that severely strains tion performance. Netflix has also cre- and directly and securely connecting make it easier to use those cards. To network capacity and security. We ated internal content delivery net- to cloud providers eases corporate adapt, 2016 will see the players in the predict that in 2016, enterprises will works to circumvent Internet band- concerns. 7. Interconnection will remove sig- Equinix, more than a third of respon- digital payments industry seeking work to more seamlessly combine width limitations and stream even nificant barriers to IT growth. dents who have already deployed fast, continuous availability of coloca- networked intelligence with the data more digital content to customers, 6. Cyber-security will fuel In 2016, the corporate network will interconnection solutions report tion services in a scalable, intercon- being processed by sensors and actu- effectively and efficiently. increased adoption of interconnec- be strained by trends such as the greater than $10 million in value cre- nected environment. These environ- ators. This will enable the enterprise tion. global dispersion of workforces (75% ated, with 58% reporting this value ments must supply real-time access to to gain more control of its information 4. The Internet will get greener. Cyber-security was one of the of enterprise employees reside in came from increased revenue oppor- brokers, as well as to digital wallet and and enhance its ability to use the IoT The Internet will get greener in biggest concerns identified by enter- locations outside of a company’s tunities. , VP Global Enterprise market data providers. They must also to quickly adapt to changing condi- 2016, even as the number of global prise IT leaders in the recent Equinix headquarters) and the proliferation of Strategy and Marketing, Equinix. connect to hundreds of point-of-sale tions, create new value and drive new Internet users reaches 50 percent of “Enterprise of the Future” report. In multiple users who access the net- —Tony Bishop is the vice president providers, digital commerce sites, growth. Enterprises can improve their the world’s population. This continu- fact, 64% of global IT business deci- work via multiple devices in multiple Global Enterprise Strategy and financial institutions and mobile net- agility in rapidly changing IoT environ- ous expansion of our digital lives sion-makers admitted cyber-security locations. Centralized, siloed IT archi- Marketing for Equinix. works. We predict that 2016 will also ments by deploying infrastructure requires massive amounts of electrici- concerns could prompt them to con- tectures, often trapped in on-premise N Korea’s computer operating system mirrors its political one SINGAPORE/SEOUL: North Korea’s homegrown computer how many computers were running the software. While operating system mirrors its political one, according to two private computer use is on the rise in North Korea, visitors German researchers who have delved into the code: a go- to the country say most computers still use Windows XP, it-alone approach, a high degree of paranoia and invasive now nearly 15 years old. snooping on users. Their research, the deepest yet into the secretive state’s Red Star OS, illustrates the challenges NO TAMPERING Pyongyang faces in trying to embrace the benefits of com- The Red Star operating system makes it very hard for puting and the internet while keeping a tight grip on ideas anyone to tamper with it. If a user makes any changes to and culture. core functions - like trying to disable its antivirus checker The researchers, Florian