Digital

We are entering a new era of digitalization and interconnection

In which digital applications and services will be required everywhere, for everyone. The year 2021 marks the start of the most exciting digital decade since the commercial Internet’s inception. Digital business has unquestionably become the future backbone of economic growth, and no industry can afford to be left behind. It is no longer a question of whether or not to digitize. You absolutely should. The quicker, the better.

Digital applications are now more important than ever in all aspects of business and personal life

In recent months, these have proven their worth, finding a place in both our professional and personal lives. However, in addition to virtual desktops and video streaming, specific industries are advancing with digital applications and services, ranging from e-health to highly sophisticated logistics and mobility applications, and on to the finance sector. The Covid-19 pandemic did not cause this transformation, but it has accelerated it. This accelerated pace of enterprise digitalization will be a key factor in future economic growth.

As economic activity shifts from analog to digital, one thing unites all of these applications, and it is related to the purely physical characteristics of the speed of light. This is referred to as “latency” in the digital infrastructure industry.

The future of business is digital

For the exciting next generation of applications and services, latency is the new currency. This means that digital infrastructure will become even more important in the future, as these requirements are universal in today’s world.

As latency requirements decrease, it becomes increasingly important to bring interconnection services as close to people and businesses as possible – everywhere. DE-CIX, the operator of the world’s leading interconnection ecosystems, provides low-latency, high-performance interconnection services to 25 Internet Exchanges worldwide, connecting over 2100 of the world’s largest networks and accessible via 500+ data centers in over 100 countries.

Today, we provide coverage for approximately 4 billion people worldwide with IXs that have a latency of 65ms or less. However, if latency requirements continue to evolve at the same rate as innovation in recent years, digital services and applications will have advanced to the point where even lower latencies are required in a relatively short time. This is likely to be reduced to a maximum of 20ms in the near future for a seamless end-user experience.