The digital transformation among agencies has grown at a rapid pace. With this, the need for fast and secure connections to colocation data centers is also growing. Solutions such as Internet connection, multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) connection, and Software Defined Interconnect solutions (SDI) are able to help with network demand. While Internet connections are inexpensive, there may be issues with predictability and monitoring. MPLS connections make up for what Internet connections lack, but the “procurement, installation, and configuration of physical assets to establish the connection can take months,” said Stefan Raab, Global Principal at Equinix. This is a large issue when agencies need to make quick connections.
SDI connections are able to “make available a wide range of software-defined network resources, eliminate the need for dedicated access circuits, and enable an enterprise to establish a private, direct IP network connection to global data centers, on-demand, in minutes,” said Raab. SDIs help to “facilitate a reduction in network and connectivity costs for accessing colocation data centers, while promoting agility and innovation for enterprises,” said Courtney Munroe, Group Vice President at IDC.
“The interest in these tools continues to increase across all areas of the public sector,” said Bill Ambrose, Product Manager, supporting SDN and Virtual Services, at Verizon, a Global Transformation Award Winner. “Right now, many public agencies are embracing it because of its simplified deployment and ability to provide end-to-end encryption.”
In a recent interview, Don Wiggins, Senior Global Solutions Architect at Equinix, discussed a joined collaboration between Equinix and Verizon, named Equinix Trailblazer Partner Award winner for 2020 and Equinix Social Impact Award winner for 2020, to establish an SDI solution that “integrates MPLS networks to make a global network where joint customers can traverse one to the other quickly. Whereas traditionally, traversing from one network would take months to provision,” said Wiggins.
Raab commented that SDI solutions “enable enterprises in industries such as manufacturing, financial services, and banking to take advantage of software-defined networking capabilities to manage distributed IT resources available via colocation centers. Using SDI, an enterprise establishes a secure, reliable connection to the colocation center.” Wiggins highlighted how, in the education and healthcare industries, agencies are able to “collaborate with each other through platforms that instrumental to the capability to move from siloed approaches to data collaborate.”
Through establishing secure connections to colocation centers, SDI solutions help agencies to make quick connections that optimize performance and interconnectivity. “With Software-Defined Interconnect, a key barrier to digital transformation has been lifted,” said Equinix’s Bill Long, Vice President, Interconnection Services.
