Equinix Survey Reveals Three-quarters of Irish Businesses Plan to Reduce Office Space

Equinix, Inc., the world’s digital infrastructure company, has 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 multi-cloud 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®).

Key Facts of the survey

• 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. 

Maurice Mortell, Managing Director for Ireland, Equinix commented:

“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 multi-cloud 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.”

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