American interconnectivity and data center provider Equinix is carefully considering its future business strategy, as it strives towards capitalizing on the next wave of cloud computing and data center advancements. According to company executives, projected growth in the data center segment will be shaped by the next generation of applications, as well as the emergence of new markets across the globe.
In order to oversee its future strategy, Equinix recently created a new business unit called the Strategy, Services and Innovation (SSI) division. The SSI unit will be led by the COO of Equinix, Charles Meyers, who will work closely with the CTO, along with the company’s Business Development, Product Management and Product Engineering departments.
While discussing the potential future landscape of the data center market, CEO of Equinix, Stephen Smith had this to say during an earnings call:
We’ve lived with six years or seven years of a wave — we call it kind of the first wave in cloud — and we think there’s another wave coming. Obviously, the big hyper-scalers and the cloud providers have learned from their first wave of deployments, so the next wave is going to be different.
IoT control points are going to be connected to the cloud and are going to require storage, networking, and server infrastructure all over the world to drive connected cars, connected tractors, sensors, cameras — all these things that are going to get connected to the cloud and to the internet.
You’ll probably see Equinix taking a more active role in positioning ourselves for extending the interconnection footprint to where these aggregation points matter, and how they evolve … and how the edge moves.
As the next wave of data centers looms larger each passing day, Equinix says it may also have to modify the types of deals it currently offers. While the company refrains from wholesale leases, it has recently started making large capacity deals with clients that it considers strategically important.