Interconnection bandwidth to grow 55% CAGR in 2018-2022

66% of local businesses shared plans to use virtual connections to support overseas expansions.

Hong Kong’s interconnection bandwidth or private connectivity is expected to grow the second fastest in Asia Pacific with a projected 55% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2018-2022, according to data centre company Equinix.

Interconnection bandwidth refers to an interconnected ecosystem that privately and directly exchanges traffic. It features an optimised, multi-point connectivity via direct, private traffic exchange points between users and local services.

Traditionally, businesses employ a centralized IT infrastructure with constrained, point-to-point connectivity, backhauling user traffic to a central data center.

Hong Kong’s CAGR growth is expected to be driven by local businesses and organizations expanding overseas, of which 66% shared plans to use virtual connections to support their expansions, according to a separate independent survey commissioned by Equinix.

Hong Kong also emerged as the top market in terms of interconnection deployment, ahead of Tokyo and Singapore. The city’s businesses led the region’s interconnection deployment in two industries: securities and trading, and others.

Asia Pacific’s bandwidth is expected to expand 56% CAGR to exceed 3,825 Terabits per second (Tbps) by 2022, contributing 29% of the global capacity. Amongst industries, cloud and IT services is expected to consume the most interconnection bandwidth, reaching 914 Tbps, which is forecast to outpace growth (50% CAGR) of clouds in all other regions.

Global private connectivity at the edge is expected to grow by 51% CAGR and is forecasted to exceed a total bandwidth capacity of more than 13,300 Tbps, equivalent to 53 zettabytes (ZB) of data exchanged annually.