Enterprises Turn Towards XaaS as They Undergo Digital Transformation

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The subscription model for digital services has proliferated in the consumer market as users across all demographics experience the benefits of the on-demand service economy. This phenomenon has contributed to the rise of Everything as a Service (XaaS), now percolating into the business environment as organizations rapidly shift their workloads onto cloud-based platforms. XaaS has become a digital force multiplier, enabling enterprises access to digital services that boost innovation, enhance business operations, improve efficiency and reduce overall costs. While only 9% of businesses have shifted fully to XaaS business models, 85% are at some level of progress stage, either piloting or operating at scale.[1] In Asia-Pacific alone, the XaaS market will reach US$1,312 billion by 2032 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 23% and is expected to shape the future of services, yielding significant returns for companies that deploy their own.[2]

Business capabilities, services and processes in XaaS are not discrete vertical offerings operating in silos, instead they operate as horizontal services that can be accessed across organizational boundaries. The adoption of XaaS casts a new light on digital transformation, not only to overhaul the use of legacy systems but to enable businesses to change the way they consume and deploy digital services. In a recent webinar, we discussed Platform Equinix® as an example of a neutral XaaS platform that interconnects organizations to the right partners, providing seamless access to software tools and digital services hosted on cloud infrastructure. Artificial intelligence (AI), precise timekeeping and quantum computing resources are just a few examples of cutting-edge, as a service technologies that enterprises can harness to future-proof their operations and achieve successful business outcomes.

Addressing the preparedness of digital infrastructure for AI facilitation

The advancement of AI and its applicability in a wide range of industries from finance to healthcare has incentivized forward-looking companies to find ways to develop their own capabilities in the field. However, despite the widespread adoption of AI, 44% of IT leaders in Asia-Pacific believe their existing IT infrastructure is not fully prepared for the demands of artificial intelligence according to the Equinix 2023 Global Tech Trends Survey. Development-to-deployment AI infrastructure has become the preferred AI workload and testing approach, which allows for experimentation in AI, data sciences, machine learning, and deep learning from any location on demand.

Equinix 2023 Global Tech Trends Survey

The benefits and challenges of new digital technologies, and future-proofing strategies

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The NVIDIA LaunchPad program is a prime example of how the Equinix platform is being used to provide customers with instant access to NVIDIA hardware and software for enterprises via interconnected Equinix data centers worldwide. Equinix is the first digital infrastructure company to offer instant AI infrastructure for NVIDIA LaunchPad. The service offers AI software tools for various AI frameworks, including those in NVIDIA AI Enterprise, the software layer of the NVIDIA AI platform. The LaunchPad program makes it easy to access software and accelerated infrastructure through Platform Equinix.

Time as a Service enables seamless experiences for real-time applications

The modern consumer has become accustomed to instantaneous service delivery and experiences that are smooth and continuous. From critical financial transactions and trades to telecommunications, navigation and virtual videoconferencing, data-intensive application workloads critically rely on time-synchronous operations to run seamlessly at scale. However, traditional time synchronization approaches are often costly, difficult to maintain and scale and increasingly unable to keep up with the rigorous demands of new applications. With the rapid adoption of cloud and digitalization in business infrastructure, data centers have become an important linkage in the overall network chain and are now emerging as the preferred solution for cost-effective and distributable timekeeping.

Edge services like Equinix Precision Time®, delivered over Equinix Fabric® and Network Edge, are offered to enterprises as "Time as a Service" (TaaS), addressing the demand for precise timekeeping. By subscribing to a digital service that is scalable based on the varied needs of organizations and industries, customers can avoid the challenges that come with relying on the public internet or GPS antennas for time synchronization. Equinix offers Precision Time as fully managed timing infrastructure and ensures rapid provisioning and uninterruptible service. Equinix Precision Time provides both Network Time Protocol (NTP) and Precision Time Protocol (PTP) capabilities depending on the enterprise industry and needs.

Democratizing access to quantum computing

From drug discovery and development to advanced manufacturing and risk management in banking, quantum computing has significant future potential to accelerate research & development for new innovations. Complex problems that would take an average classical computer a year to solve can be done within mere seconds by a quantum computer.[3] Given the enormous problem-solving potential, quantum computing could rapidly accelerate the innovation cycle by multiple factors. However, the quantum computers of today are few and far between. They are often costly to obtain and difficult to manage, with estimates at upwards of US$15,000 for a single base model machine.[4] Quantum computers are also large and delicate pieces of equipment, required to be maintained under exact conditions to operate effectively. It is unlikely that quantum computers will resemble classical computers we use today in the form of smartphones and laptops.

By offering Quantum computing as a Service (QCaaS), Equinix lowers the barriers to entry for commercial quantum computing use, eliminating the need for enterprises to build and manage capabilities themselves. Debuting in Autumn of 2023, Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC) will install its revolutionary quantum hardware in Equinix's TY11 Tokyo data center. Through Equinix Fabric, users can access quantum computing resources from any location, with low-latency connectivity to this proprietary quantum computing platform. This service allows customers to access quantum computing resources on-demand without the need for expensive hardware or infrastructure. Businesses will be able to leverage QCaaS to solve complex computing problems in various industries, accessible through the cloud and on their own classical computers.

Subscribing to on demand XaaS and digital services for agile outcomes

As the accelerated data infrastructure and digital services scene becomes more advanced, data centers will be able to offer interconnections for a vast quantity of specialized digital services at individual unique operational specifications. On demand, robust digital infrastructure will be critical for preventing possible downtime, bandwidth and latency issues, as well as added complexity to supply chains. Equinix's physical and digital services simplify XaaS by interconnecting digital service providers with their consumers through its rich and diverse digital platform ecosystem.

[1]https://www.ey.com/en_gl/tmt/when-customers-change-how-they-buy-should-you-change-the-way-you-sell

[2]https://inkwoodresearch.com/reports/asia-pacific-everything-as-a-service-market/

[3]https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/quantum-computing/#:~:text=Quantum%20computing%20is%20a%20multidisciplinary,hardware%20research%20and%20application%20development.

[4]https://thequantuminsider.com/2023/04/10/price-of-a-quantum-computer/#:~:text=To%20give%20you%20some%20estimate,have%20risen%20considerably%20since%20then.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Asia-Pacific
• Equinix Precision Time
• NVIDIA
• XaaS

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