Hong Kong is on track to record the highest rate of growth of interconnection bandwidth – the capacity for private data exchange between businesses – in the Asia-Pacific region, according to Equinix.
Hong Kong is currently tied with Japan as the third top metro in Asia-Pacific in terms of interconnection bandwidth, after Singapore and Sydney.
But Hong Kong's interconnection installed bandwidth capacity is expected to grow at a CAGR of 51% between 2016-2020 to reach 149 Tbps, the fastest growth rate in the region.
Globally, growth in interconnection bandwidth is growing at nearly twice the rate of IP traffic over the internet, and is expected to comprise nearly six times the volume by 2020.
Interconnection bandwidth is expected to grow at a 45% CAGR to reach 5,000Tbps by 2020, dwarfing global IP traffic in both growth (24%) and volume (755Tbps).
APAC is projected to be the second fastest growing market after Latin America with an anticipated CAGR of 46% through to 2020, and is expected to account for 22% of global interconnection bandwidth (1,120Tbps of installed capacity) by this time.
Globally, the fastest growing use case for interconnection bandwidth involves enterprises connecting directly to cloud and IT service providers, with capacity projected to grow at a 160% CAGR through to 2020. But interconnections to network providers is expected to continue to account for the lion's share of bandwidth, with a 52% CAGR to 1,986Tbps.
In APAC, cloud and IT services providers are predicted to overtake telecommunications
providers as the largest users of interconnection bandwidth by next year. But the industries with the largest CAGR are expected to include energy and utility (82%), healthcare and life sciences (74%) and banking and insurance (71%).
“According to the Global Interconnection Index, the Asia-Pacific region is predicted to outpace both the United States and Europe in terms of interconnection bandwidth by 2020,” Equinix Asia-Pacific president Samuel Lee said.
“This is consistent with the economic predictions which indicate Asia-Pacific will overtake the United States and Europe as the largest regional economy, meaning there has never been a better time for businesses in the region to embrace the multiple opportunities offered by digital transformation.”
First published in Computerworld Hong Kong