Multicloud Network Complexity: 3 Ways to Simplify Your Network and Reduce Costs

TL:DR

• Outdated multicloud networkingscan create complexity that burdens IT staff, reduces efficiency and drives hidden costs through technical debt accumulation.
• Private virtual connectivity via Equinix Fabric & Network Edge can replace the internet, VPNs & MPLS circuits for secure, scalable multicloud networking.
• Hero Group cut costs with simplified management, Dojo achieved 80% faster payments and Outseer saved $500K through modernized connectivity annually.

While hybrid multicloud adoption has surged, the networks that connect these environments haven't always kept pace, leading to a patchwork of solutions that increase complexity and costs. Outdated network designs tend to overburden IT staff with network management, reduce operational efficiencies and create poor user experiences. Further, the technical debt of poor network design tends to increase over time, leading to hidden IT costs.

In today's complex IT landscape, network leaders are under increasing pressure to deliver high performance while keeping costs in check. The key to achieving both? Simplification. By reducing unnecessary complexity across your network infrastructure, you can unlock significant cost savings while improving agility and scalability. Fortunately, there are several strategies that can help you get started connecting distributed workloads and data, simply and cost-efficiently.

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3 ways to simplify network complexity and reduce costs

How companies address network complexity depends on their strategies and network requirements. They may need to migrate data quickly and securely from one cloud to another, consolidate their hardware and infrastructure or completely modernize their connectivity. There are solutions for each of these scenarios.

Modernize network connectivity

As demand for network capacity increases, businesses must be able to quickly deploy and scale their networks to support new services and applications, while maintaining excellent user experience. Modern networking is vital for connecting edge devices and ensuring seamless data flow between edge and core infrastructure.

Modernizing enterprise networks has multiple benefits, including improved network reliability, security, flexibility and cost optimization. On-demand networking and connectivity services are ideal for building adaptable networks that can easily scale with changing requirements. When businesses transition from leased physical networking lines to virtual connectivity, they can provision, and scale as needed.

The Hero Group, a global food supplier, transformed their IT infrastructure with Equinix hybrid multicloud networking solutions, enabling seamless connectivity between key metropolitan areas. They now have a high-performing solution using Equinix Fabric that helps cut costs by minimizing duplication and enabling simpler management.

Tap into private connectivity for multicloud environments

While many enterprises rely on internet-based connectivity with encrypted VPNs or dedicated interconnects for cloud connectivity, each approach has potential trade-offs, including performance, cost, security, reliability, scalability and ease of deployment. Private virtual network connectivity to, from and between clouds addresses these trade-offs.

One option is to transition from internet and VPN connectivity to private, software-defined network connectivity, such as Equinix Fabric®, which is more secure and reliable. It's highly scalable, delivers better performance, and is easier to manage than an encrypted VPN service.

Transitioning from MPLS circuits to virtual connectivity or SD-WAN implementations can reduce costs and enable scalability. While MPLS provides dedicated and reliable connections, it tends to be more expensive and less flexible. In contrast, SD-WANs are optimized for cloud connectivity, providing improved network efficiency, visibility, scalability, flexibility and security. Equinix Network Edge® enables businesses to easily deploy on-demand, virtual network functions like SD-WAN devices, as well as virtual firewalls and routers to aggregate connectivity.

For businesses that need to transfer data privately between public clouds, Equinix Fabric Cloud Router provides secure, low-latency cloud-to-cloud routing. It eliminates reliance on the public internet and the need for physical hardware, which simplifies routing and improves security, performance and reliability.

Taking this one step further, businesses can leverage Fabric Cloud Router and Equinix Fabric together, to quickly and easily move data privately across multiple locations, clouds and services. They only pay for what they use, while achieving better application performance across hybrid multicloud environments.

The right multicloud network design can help organizations optimize network performance, costs, resiliency and data security, while simultaneously simplifying their multicloud connectivity.

UK payment technology provider Dojo required connectivity with Oracle Cloud, AWS and Google Cloud, as well as secure, high-speed communication between the company's three primary cloud providers and their on-premises hardware. They used Equinix Fabric and Equinix Network Edge to establish a high-performance, hybrid multicloud infrastructure, enabling their customers to process payments 80% faster than the industry average.

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Figure 1: Dojo's deployment of high-performance, hybrid multicloud infrastructure at Equinix

Balance the use of CAPEX- and OPEX-based consumption models

When trying to balance capital and operational expenditures, organizations should consider the need for flexibility and scalability, total cost of ownership and expected resource usage. For instance, high-bandwidth workloads that require private compute and storage infrastructure may benefit from investments in physical network components. Conversely, modern workloads that are dynamic or unpredictable are often better served by OPEX-based models, with pay-as-you-go flexibility. This approach helps minimize the risk of over- or underprovisioning.

Equinix hybrid multicloud networking solutions accommodate both consumption models, allowing organizations to apply a mix that best suits their use cases. Flexible consumption models enable businesses to achieve operational simplicity and lower connectivity costs, while future-proofing their hybrid multicloud strategy to meet evolving business demands.

Businesses can deploy OPEX-based, software-defined networking using Equinix Fabric, Equinix Network Edge and Equinix Fabric Cloud Router. For workloads that require CAPEX-based physical infrastructure, they can leverage physical cross connects inside Equinix colocation facilities. By tailoring network infrastructure to use a combination of virtual and physical deployments, businesses can avoid unnecessary costs and simplify network complexity.

Outseer, a global leader in digital fraud prevention, needed to simplify its global networks and enhance application performance. They leveraged Equinix Fabric, Equinix IBX data centers and EVP-LAN solutions, to optimize application performance, reduce network complexity and lower VPN reliance, achieving cost savings of over $500,000 annually.

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Figure 2: Outseer's simplified global network deployment at Equinix

Solve complexity and reduce costs in the right place

If it's time to simplify your network and reduce costs, consider leveraging modern multicloud networking solutions and colocation services at Equinix's 270+ global data center facilities. Thousands of businesses have deployed their network infrastructure at strategic locations where private networks, the public internet and cloud on-ramps converge. By taking an intentional approach and aligning network architecture with workload-specific demands, you can ensure a solution that's robust, future-proof and tailored to your business.

Download our Hybrid Multicloud Network Planning Guide to learn more about how to simplify your network and reduce costs.

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