In 1899, French commercial artist Jean-Marc Côté was asked to depict what he thought the future would look like. A quick Google search reveals that his predictions were pretty appropriate for what you’d think that people 100 years ago would imagine for the very best and brightest of human invention. These Victorian postcards show us commercial space travel (in what looks like a standard automobile, no less), video phones, flying taxis and even automaton hairdressers.
In many ways, we’ve achieved the peak of futuristic technologies that the Victorians wished for us — and some of them we’re still working on. Yes, the innovation we’ve achieved has completely reshaped the way we live, how we interact with the world and with each other and how we do business on a global scale. Still, when we consider the most stupendous, revolutionary technology at the core of all this, we see where the stark departure from Jean-Marc Côté’s imagination comes in. Today, everything we’ve built — from healthcare wearables to autonomous vehicles and beyond — rests on the shoulders of often unassuming (or even invisible, in the case of the cloud) digital infrastructure. Of course, data center racks, underground fiber for global connectivity and tiny CPUs weren’t things many would dream up 100 years ago (after all, the postcards depicted facetime-esque technologies being powered by massive, wire-ridden in-home contraptions).
Ultimately, one thing that remains indisputably true is that before you build the life-changing, mass-marketed application or device, first must come the less-fun part of architecting underlying connectivity, data transport and IT management. Still, as anyone entrenched in this realm will tell you, this is where the magic happens.
As the future unfolds before us, new connectivity pioneers are sure to surface, the physical connectivity layer will be reshaped thanks to the power of peering, and new digital platforms will become the bedrock of innovation. So, as we collectively look ahead, here’s where I think we’ll find ourselves in the years to come.
#1: CDNs as Connectivity Pioneers
‘Content is king’ has become a common refrain in our digital day — and for good reason. Technology’s use as an entertainer, informer, collaborator and aggregator of endless streams of content is one of its most popular roles. At the heart of this are Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) and their distributed network of servers caching content near users. These networks are building the era of new digital experience, powering live, immersive experiences across streaming platforms, online gaming and beyond. Players in this arena like Akamai, Google and Meta aren’t slowing their explosive growth (a requirement for meeting growing demand from more users), and new, massive data hubs are being built every day to support low-latency, high-performance experiences. However, to achieve a dense fabric of next-gen connectivity to the edge, these massive organizations are also investing in more regional connectivity epicenters too. The resulting landscape of closely knit, small-hop connections — versus a map of disparate, large nodes — is the future of content delivery and connectivity creation.
Reports note that the global content delivery network market was valued at just over $18 billion in 2022 — and that size is expected to grow quickly at a CAGR of 23.6% from 2023 to 2030. Despite the fact that this shift toward the edge and infrastructure investments moving outside of so-called “NFL cities” to create better coverage is not new, we’re still at the very beginning of this ongoing journey toward optimized, ubiquitous connection. 2024 and the years that come after will follow in these footsteps.
#2: Peering’s Unstoppable Momentum
As mentioned above, large players are increasingly investing in Tier 2, Tier 3 and Tier 4 locations to support latency-sensitive, data-rich applications at the very edges of the digital map. A major enabler here is the peering exchange or Internet Exchange Point (IXP).
As the primacy of speed grows stronger by the day and is reinforced with every new 5G, IoT, AI or autonomous invention, IXPs have become vital assets in the creation of robust connectivity. At IXPs like OmahaIX, Microsoft, Qwilt, Meta and Akamai have all hopped on board or expanded their ports. But why?
IXPs present unique advantages that traditional transport may not achieve. The ecosystems of peers here are rich, and each peer brings its own network to the party, offering highly diverse route opportunities. The direct connection between networks not only removes additional transport fees, keeping costs low, but offers unprecedented control over how data is sent to its destination — in essence, networking can always be optimized. As more organizations and hyperscalers see the value in being part of these rich, growing ecosystems, ROI only increases in the form of faster, more efficient networking — which means better performance to boot.
#3: Digital Transformation Demands a Digital Platform
In a connected world, siloes are the death of progress. Today, innovation thrives on a multitude of collaborative, interconnected platforms, partners, services, devices and geographical locations. Every digital element of an organization must speak to the others to create seamless operations and frictionless experiences, and all of this is only driving the demand for next-gen networking. This is especially true at the hyperscale level.
In the future, the convergence of digital resources into cohesive digital platforms will continue — so data center providers need to be prepared to serve as stabilizers and connectors in this new world. In the past, the data centers could be a stand-alone location for housing physical components and keeping them safe. Today, the data center has to expand quickly beyond its own four walls to showcase that it can not only be part of the greater, connected fabric of platforms, partners and solutions — but that it can actually add value to it. This is what will set some data centers apart in the years to come and make them hubs for hyperscalers that are extending their reach. This is also why colocation data centers that double as IXPs are at a premium. Today, colocation and connectivity are the last things we want in siloes, so infrastructure providers will need to align with agility-focused, mobility-driven goals.
#4: Diversification in the Driver’s Seat
On one hand, we’ll see tech convergence, but on the other hand, continued network diversification will also drive change. After all, in the oft-mentioned ‘always-on’ world, advanced networking can’t just exist — it has to be infallible to keep applications and technologies available.
In case anyone needed a reminder: Just because large enterprises and hyperscale-level organizations are massive doesn’t mean they’re immune. After all, the list of top 10 largest internet outages in 2023 included some of the most recognizable names in our digital world. Network outages don’t discriminate, and it’s up to every organization to build intelligently with the worst-case scenarios in mind. To help bridge these gaps for organizations of all sizes, enterprises and broadband providers are (and will continue) to focus on network novelty — routes that are unique and therefore a protection against potential outages on more central paths.
As network needs are assessed and architected based on the predictions and trends above, success will be based increasingly on diversification. After all, having a high-value ecosystem of partners, platforms, data centers, clouds and more doesn’t matter much if you can’t reliably reach them.
