After the mega blackout: networks are also critical infrastructures

The major power outage on the Iberian Peninsula has shown that our digital world is fragile. Despite the power outage, Equinix's data centers in Spain and Portugal were fully operational at all times. If the power supply is interrupted by the utility company, the emergency power systems switch on and continue to carry the loads until the power supply is restored.

Data centers are critical infrastructures

Data centers have become just as important to society as, for example, water treatment plants or power stations. It is gratifying to see that governments around the world not only recognize this fact, but also act accordingly, such as in Switzerland, where data centers are classified as critical infrastructure.

However, it is important to recognize that data centers are only one part of the digital infrastructure equation and do not function as islands of data. Our digital world is inherently interconnected, and many of the applications we rely on are not run from a single data center. They require many distributed data centers at the digital edge, close to data sources and end users, and these data centers need to be interconnected.

Investments in individual data centers are important, but they are not enough. We also need a robust network infrastructure to enable our networked society. This network infrastructure is just as important as the data centers themselves, because without it we would not be able to fully exploit the potential of these data centers.  

Data centers can enable the smart age, but not without connectivity

We are living at the beginning of a new era: the intelligent age (the Intelligent Age), which is characterized by digital technology and its massive influence on society. To better understand this change, we can look back at a similar period in history: the industrial revolution.

The industrial revolution was characterized by the emergence of new factories, which led to an enormous increase in productivity, but factories alone were not enough. Manufacturers needed a global shipping network to get the raw materials to the factories and the finished products to the markets. Otherwise, factories on one continent would be idle and warehouses on another would be overflowing.

Today's data centers play a similar role. Just like these factories, data centers would not be able to function without a constant stream of raw materials - in this case, data. Instead of ships and ports, they rely on a global network infrastructure to transfer data from a variety of sources, including end users, IoT devices and other data centers.

High-performance data centers are networked data centers

Global network connectivity is part of what makes real high-performance Data Center makes up. In contrast, on-premises data centers are often isolated. These conventional data centers were built for a different era, long before the advent of data-intensive applications like AI. Companies that continue to rely on these data centers may struggle to reach ecosystem partners such as cloud and network service providers. They must fend for themselves in a complex and ever-changing digital world.

High-performance colocation data centers provide access to ecosystem services that make life easier, whether it's the flexibility and scalability of a multi-cloud infrastructure or the global reach and reliability of an extensive portfolio of network service providers. These data centers also offer scalable, private Interconnection servicesthat enable companies to easily connect with their ecosystem partners and move their data to where it is needed.

Many companies are also faced with the challenge of new data sovereignty requirements. They have data sets that need to remain in their country of origin and therefore require data centers in these countries. The traditional "hub-and-spoke" model of digital infrastructure, where all data is consolidated in data centers in a few central locations, no longer works in this new reality. Instead, companies need many data centers in many locations that are all interconnected. This provides the flexibility to store certain data sets within certain boundaries, while other data sets can be moved freely around the world.

The introduction of AI underlines the importance of a distributed digital infrastructure

The need for distributed data centers is not new, but the emergence of advanced AI use cases in recent years has underscored this need.

AI applications are highly distributed by nature. AI training workloads and AI inference workloads have different infrastructure requirements and are therefore best served by different data centers at different locations supported. These various data centers rely on a robust network infrastructure to ensure a free flow of data between the processing locations.

Most IT managers do not need to think about AI training infrastructure on a regular basis, especially as many companies purchase models from a service provider rather than training their own. The provision of a Edge infrastructure for AI inference is, however, a prerequisite for any company that wants to be successful with AI.

This inference is not a one-off process either: as new data is constantly emerging, it needs to be performed consistently over time. This ongoing AI inference requires a network infrastructure that simply works when and how it should. Therefore, organizations need access to a reliable, resilient network infrastructure on a global scale to support their AI initiatives.

Access to a global interconnection platform

The idea that networks are critical infrastructure is nothing new to us at Equinix. We have continually invested to ensure that we can provide our customers with the reliable connectivity they need to succeed in a changing digital world. Our dedicated interconnection solutions allow our customers to bypass the public internet with its performance and privacy issues. Instead, they can opt for a hybrid network model that combines physical Equinix Cross Connects as well as virtual networks with Equinix Fabric includes. This helps them to harmonize their requirements in terms of performance, safety, cost efficiency and flexibility.

Author: Roger Semprini is Managing Director Switzerland of the data center operator Equinix.

This article originally appeared on m-q.ch - https://www.m-q.ch/de/nach-dem-mega-blackout-auch-netzwerke-sind-kritische-infrastrukturen/