Three-quarters of Irish Businesses Plan to Reduce Office Space

DUBLIN, Ireland – October 27 2020 – Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the world’s digital infrastructure company, today announced the results of a survey, which found that nearly three-quarters (74%) of medium to large-sized enterprises in Ireland are planning to reduce their office space as they embrace remote working on a more permanent basis.

The independent study, commissioned by Equinix, surveyed 127 senior IT decision-makers in Ireland, highlighting sentiments around the challenges posed by the transition to remote work for businesses nationwide. The survey findings indicated that 76% of businesses expect to permanently offer more flexibility around remote working for employees.

Despite the many reported benefits of remote working from an employee and business perspective, Equinix’s research found that one-third of Ireland’s IT leaders are experiencing heightened stress from enabling and supporting a remote workforce. With a view to streamlining support for remote work, 52% of enterprises in Ireland are now planning to increase investment in cloud and data centre services.

More broadly, the survey findings demonstrate the growing importance of reliable and seamless connectivity for businesses with their employees, customers and partners, as well as the inherent need for a robust and scalable IT infrastructure to keep up with fluctuations in business demands. The technological impact of COVID-19 has led to 67% of businesses experiencing an increase in bandwidth requirements, with 65% of IT decision-makers expecting a sustained increase in their bandwidth requirements post-pandemic.

With the majority of enterprises now looking to downsize their existing office space as they prepare for a more digitally-connected workforce, the case for hybrid multicloud strategies that enable enterprises to virtually connect with employees and partners, has become more pronounced. The ongoing digitisation of service offerings and key processes is also incentivising companies to expand into new markets, and thus explore the latest technological solutions that can facilitate growth of this nature, such as Equinix Fabric™(formerly Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric®).

Highlights/Key Facts

• Equinix Fabric enables businesses to interconnect with some of the world’s largest cloud providers in a private and seamless manner. By facilitating direct access to a high concentration of major cloud provider onramps, Equinix gives businesses the power to deploy a bespoke, cloud-first strategy tailored to evolving business requirements and supporting an increasing reliance on remote working.
• Equinix Fabric has been designed specifically to help digital enterprises interconnect with employees, customers, partners and clouds, providing greater scalability for enterprises irrespective of office size or existing legacy infrastructure. The on-demand model of Equinix Fabric is geared towards helping organisations support a moving target of remote users collaborating in real-time, without capital cost.
• According to the Global Interconnection Index (GXI) Volume 4—a market study published by Equinix—the digital adoption pattern has altered, with service providers now forecast to provision more interconnection bandwidth (10,284 Terabits per second (Tbps) by 2023) than enterprises, by a factor of nearly 2x.
• To facilitate the transition towards more flexible working conditions in Ireland, a number of Equinix partners now provide Equinix Fabric to businesses nationwide to deliver fast, secure and reliable connectivity, streamline cloud migration and strengthen business performance.

Quotes

• Maurice Mortell, Managing Director for Ireland, Equinix:
  “The events of this year have illustrated how employees’ physical presence is not a prerequisite to business success across a myriad of industries. In fact, for the majority of employees, remote working boosts productivity and has a positive impact on their health and wellbeing—and therefore their overall job satisfaction.
  
  “Many businesses have assessed the current landscape, collated feedback from their staff, and prioritised the formulation of tailored remote working guidelines. By giving employees the flexibility to choose what environment works best for them, there will inevitably be a significant drop in the number of staff present on-site each week, thus reducing the need for large, expensive office space.
  
  “The rise in remote working, coupled with the accelerated move to digital commerce, has resulted in a massive increase in data and bandwidth requirements. At Equinix, we have been helping enterprises in Ireland to survive and prosper through the pandemic by increasing their bandwidth capacity. The adoption of cloud-first strategies that incorporate hybrid multicloud solutions will be essential to future success. As data volumes increase, it is no longer optional for enterprises to use cloud technology—it is essential for managing workloads, staying connected and for the seamless continuity of operations.”

- Ends -

Additional Resources

• Equinix 2019-20 Global Tech Trends Survey [report]
• Equinix Partners with AirSpeed Telecom to Provide Secure Cloud Solution [press release]
• Gartner: 7 Elements for Creating a Pragmatic Enterprise Cloud Strategy [analyst report]
• Global Interconnection Index Volume 4 [report]
• Learn more about Equinix Fabric™ [website]
• Learn more about Platform Equinix® [website]
• Networking for Nerds: Accelerating Remote Worker Productivity [blog]
• Working from Home: Architecting for the New Normal [blog]

About the Equinix independent survey
This survey was commissioned by Equinix and carried out by TechPro in June-July 2020, among 127 senior IT professionals and decision-makers in businesses based in Ireland.

About Equinix
Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) is the world’s digital infrastructure company, enabling digital leaders to harness a trusted platform to bring together and interconnect the foundational infrastructure that powers their success. Equinix enables today’s businesses to access all the right places, partners and possibilities they need to accelerate advantage. With Equinix, they can scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences and multiply their value.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from expectations discussed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, the challenges of acquiring, operating and constructing IBX^® data centres and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix products and solutions; unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenues from customers in recently built out or acquired data centres; a failure to complete any financing arrangements contemplated from time to time; competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business from our key customers; risks related to our taxation as a REIT; and other risks described from time to time in Equinix filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see recent Equinix quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available upon request from Equinix. Equinix does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.

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Media Contact
Lorcan Byrne
Comit (For Equinix)
+353 1 215 7673
lorcan@comit.ie

Jess Sullivan (EMEA)
+44 7876 712861
Jess.Sullivan@eu.equinix.com