Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2022. Read them in this 14th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Looking Back at 2021 and Looking Forward to 2022
By Jim Fagan, CSRO, Global Cloud
Xchange
Takeaway: Growth in global demand for content and
connectivity are driving favorable conditions for secure Cloud access at scale
for enterprises in the fastest growing markets, supporting GCX's leadership
position and solid financial performance.
GCX Outlook Sees Reach, Flexibility,
Efficiency, and Security Driving Opportunity
The GCX turnaround through 2021 has been a significant
story in the submarine fiber optics business and the team, in many ways, is
just getting started.
The company operates the largest, neutral, privately owned
network of high-capacity submarine cable systems that stretch some 66,000km,
connecting 46 countries on 4 continents. Despite news of delayed new builds and
challenging pricing models, the subsea telecom business is solid especially for
those keeping pace with and driving innovation. Global internet and cloud
capacity continues to grow, and subsea cables provide the durable backbone to
support that growth. And the industry boasts seasoned teams with decades of
experience to provide leadership focused on value creation.
So, what lies in store for the subsea telecom business in
the year ahead and beyond? Here are a few of the opportunities and trends that
GCX is eyeing.
Subsea Links for Hyperscalers and
Enterprises
This past year saw continued growth in all markets GCX
serves, with significant upticks in intra-Asia and Middle East capacity. This
was driven by ever-increasing demands for content in these markets combined
with additional in-market capacity through new builds being delayed. New build
and even expansion projects are often consortium ventures, typically with one
of the hyperscalers as an anchor. Timing on these projects can be impacted
because all partners have to agree, and have the resources on hand, from a
CapEx perspective.
In 2022, we are expecting a continued focus on Europe, the
Middle East, and India as well as the Asia-Pacific driven by accelerating 5G
rollouts in these markets. At the heart of this growth is increasing content
consumption, including social media, IG, TikTok, streaming and gaming.
OTT Traffic and Growth
In 2022, GCX will be looking to expand our capabilities in
the markets we already serve through partnerships, investments in our network,
investments in new capacity and market offerings. If you look at our footprint,
we are definitely a go-to for U.S. OTT companies. That includes both the
Facebooks and Googles as well as the gaming companies, SaaS platforms and more.
And when you look at who is
consuming subsea capacity, obviously the Big Tech firms are buying a ton, but
if you go down to the next year, you see gaming, streaming, and those are the
customers who are consuming more and more of the capacity. All their operations
are built in the cloud. It could be their own data center, it could be an edge,
or even an IoT device in some instances. We want to make sure we are connecting
to all the right spots where the company's customers are.
Gaming is one of the applications
that we think fits very well into our strategy. It is an enormous opportunity
for us. It's already a huge market and it's getting bigger. We think
that with our strengths, particularly in the Middle East, GCX can lead the
industry in terms of gaming. We have the capacity and the ability to get
things done in that region. Gaming is following a similar pattern to that
of the cloud providers many years ago. I think we can open some doors for
the gaming industry and allow them to move much faster.
We will never be an application
company, nor do we want to be. But we are looking at how we can leverage our
core layer 1 capacity and tie that into an intelligent IP network that gives
these cloud companies the redundancy they need.
Cloud Migration Driving Edge Expansion
Digital transformation and the migration of data and
applications to the cloud is a global phenomenon. We believe cloud suppliers
will look to add more edge presence in developing markets where GCX already has
a strong presence and high availability to bring on new services.
As hyperscalers expand markets
through service at the edge, you still need persistent connectivity back to
their primary cloud. That's the only way the product works. Enterprises have
options on how they connect, especially in multi-cloud environments. If you're
in countries where your providers don't have a cloud presence, you need to go
subsea to connect.
GCX is building a unique globally accessible Cloud
ecosystem further leveraging its subsea assets where customers can create,
manage and connect their networks throughout the world.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jim Fagan, CSRO, Global Cloud
Xchange
Jim is the Chief
Strategy and Revenue Officer (CSRO) at Global Cloud Xchange (GCX). Jim is
responsible for keeping GCX at the cutting edge of innovation. Jim is a
transformative and proven technology executive with more than 20 years of
experience spanning across small private and public companies, private
equity-owned to large publicly traded multinational companies across the US,
Asia Pacific, and China. Previously, Mr. Fagan led financial operations at
Rackspace, assisting with their first IPO. Also, he was the founder and
Managing Director for their Asia Pacific business, based in Hong Kong. He
subsequently joined Pacnet, a subsea cable and data center provider (later
acquired by Telstra), responsible for developing its product portfolio, data
center business, and the build and deployment of the world's first
international SDN platform. At Telstra, he was responsible for their Cloud and
SDN business, and their global and Australia domestic Enterprise connectivity
platform.