Talk about a global outlook: data centre provider Equinix has announced the launch of a new strategy to connect its data centres around the world through software defined networking (SDN).

The inter-metro connectivity, which enables users to dynamically connect its own infrastructure across Equinix locations as well as connect to any other customer, comes through the Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric (ECX Fabric). For enterprises, it helps them with agility, while for service providers the move helps connect them with a global base of enterprise cloud buyers.

The new ECX Fabric capabilities are not quite available in all regions yet, however. All ECX locations in North America and EMEA are already catered for, including Frankfurt, London and New York, with 17 in total. Equinix says it will aim to roll out to new metros in the regions, such as Denver, Geneva and Milan, by early 2018, while extending connectivity to APAC areas later next year.

“As digital transformation intensifies, business possibilities have no limits and neither should an organisation’s IT infrastructure,” said Sara Baack, Equinix chief marketing officer in a statement. “Building a digital business requires the ability to reach strategic global destinations on demand, to access everyone that matters, and to bring people, clouds, data and things together.

“Today’s announcements and our future product and services roadmap are aimed at leveraging the Equinix global platform to serve as a strategic partner for companies on this journey,” added Baack.

According to figures from Synergy Research back in June, Equinix and Digital Realty, the company’s main rival in the colocation space, have extended their already substantial leads in the market. The primary reasons for this extension include Equinix completing the acquisition of 29 data centres from Verizon, alongside the planned merger of Digital Realty and DuPont Fabros.

IT vendor revenue in the worldwide server market increased 19.9 percent year-over-year to reach $17 billion in the third quarter of 2017 (3Q17), According to the lattest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC).

While demand from cloud computing service providers has driven overall market performance in the past, other areas of the server market are beginning to show growth. Worldwide server shipments increased 11.1 percent year over year to 2.67 million units in 3Q17.

Server systems market development

Volume server revenue increased by 19.3 percent to $14.2 billion, while midrange server revenue grew 26.9 percent to $1.4 billion.

High-end systems grew 19.4 percent to $1.3 billion, benefiting from the IBM z14 launch this quarter. That said, IDC expects continued long-term secular declines in high-end system revenue, with short periods of growth related to major platform refreshes.

"Hyperscalers continued driving volume demand in the third quarter, with Amazon again leading the charge, as Google and Facebook also began ramping up their server deployments again," said Kuba Stolarski, research director at IDC.

While original design manufacturers (ODMs) have largely been the beneficiaries of hyperscaler server demand, some OEMs have now begun to experience significant growth related to the enterprise segment.

Dell grew its server business by 37.9 percent, relying on the strong synergy between its server team and the storage team incorporated from the EMC acquisition. HPE has been pivoting away from hyperscaler business and focusing on the enterprise, hurting year-over-year comparisons in the short term, but showing strength in the enterprise.

China has become a strong market for enterprise growth, as evidenced by Dell growing 42.3 percent year-over-year to $433 million, and HPE/New H3C Group growing 49.6 percent to $421 million. In addition, IBM has demonstrated that the enterprise still has space for non-x86 systems, growing the newly refreshed system z business by 63.8 percent year-over-year to $673 million.

HPE/New H3C Group remained first in the worldwide server market with 19.5 percent market share in 3Q17, as revenue decreased 1.1 percent year-over-year to $3.3 billion. HPE's share and year-over-year growth rate includes revenues from the H3C joint venture in China that began in May of 2016; thus, the reported HPE/New H3C Group combines server revenue for both companies globally.

Dell maintained the second position in the worldwide server market with 18.1 percent of vendor revenue for the quarter and 37.9 percent year-over-year growth to $3.1 billion. IBM and Cisco were statistically tied for the third market position.

IBM had 6.4 percent share, with revenue growing 26.5 percent year-over-year to $1.1 billion. Cisco had 5.8 percent share, with revenue increasing 6.9 percent to $992 million.

Lenovo was ranked fifth with 5.1 percent share and revenue declining 12.6 percent to $861 million. The ODM Direct group of vendors grew revenue by 45.3 percent to $4.1 billion. HPE and Dell were in a statistical tie for first place in unit share, each with 18.8 percent.

As many know, the first generation of Cloud Management Platform (CMP) solutions were designed for managing virtual infrastructure (IaaS) and traditional applications. But that’s no longer enough to satisfy evolving and complex business requirements.
In his session at 21st Cloud Expo, Scott Davis, Embotics CTO, explored how next-generation CMPs ensure organizations can manage cloud-native and microservice-based application architectures, while also facilitating agile DevOps methodology. He explained how automation, orchestration and governance are fundamental to managing today’s hybrid cloud environments and are critical for digital businesses to deliver services faster, with better user experience and higher quality, all while saving money.

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“Avere Systems deals with data performance optimization in the cloud or on-premise. Even to this day many organizations struggle with what we call the problem of data gravity – ‘Where should I put the data?’ – because the data dictates ultimately where the jobs are going to run,” explained Scott Jeschonek, Director Cloud Solutions at Avere Systems, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 21st Cloud Expo, held Oct 31 – Nov 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.

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“Avere Systems deals with data performance optimization in the cloud or on-premise. Even to this day many organizations struggle with what we call the problem of data gravity – ‘Where should I put the data?’ – because the data dictates ultimately where the jobs are going to run,” explained Scott Jeschonek, Director Cloud Solutions at Avere Systems, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 21st Cloud Expo, held Oct 31 – Nov 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.

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Acuity expects cloud-based biometric solutions to authenticate more than one trillion transactions annually by 2022

Cloud-based biometric solutions are expected to drive the mobile biometric market to $50.6 billion in annual revenue by 2022, according to Acuity Market Intelligence.

Acuity predicts that more than 5.5 billion biometrically enabled mobile devices will create a global platform that would support one trillion cloud-based biometric transactions yearly by 2022.

Maxine Most, Acuity's Principal and lead analyst, said: "Biometric have become a mainstream convenience for unlocking smartphones and verifying on-device transactions. But the market is evolving towards a hierarchy of integrated biometric authentication methods that range from simple device-based verification to third-party biometric Cloud, or server-side, solutions. These solutions will replace traditional digital identity schemes and provide more secure and reliable identity assurance on a global scale.”

As per Acuity, the annual biometric transaction revenue is expected to grow from $474 million in 2017 to $18 billion in 2022, thus exceeding a 100% CAGR. Biometric app revenue is expected to increase at 26% during this period as revenue increases from $9.4 billion to $29 billion yearly. Acuity predicts mobile biometric transaction volume to reach 1.4 trillion yearly in 2022 – more than 70% cloud based – as biometric app downloads exceed 16.7 billion that year.

Most said: "Pushing biometrics to 'the edge' of the mobile ecosystem with device-based authentication improves the mobile experience, but with limitations. The big payoff comes from Cloud, or server-side biometrics, that simplify authentication and reduce friction while linking an individual to a device and platform independent Unique Verifiable Identity (UVI)."

Are you surprised at this rate of growth? Share your thoughts in the comments.

“We work around really protecting the confidentiality of information, and by doing so we’ve developed implementations of encryption through a patented process that is known as superencipherment,” explained Richard Blech, CEO of Secure Channels Inc., in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 21st Cloud Expo, held Oct 31 – Nov 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.

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