Singapore firms' private connectivity to grow 47% CAGR in 2018-2022

Its interconnection installed bandwidth capacity is projected to expand to 573 by 2022.

Singapore’s interconnection bandwidth or private connectivity is expected to grow amongst the fastest in the Asia Pacific, with a projected 47% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2018-2022, data centre company Equinix reported.

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 centralised IT infrastructure with constrained, point-to-point connectivity, backhauling user traffic to a central data center.

Singapore’s interconnection installed bandwidth capacity is projected to expand to 573 by 2022 from only 180 in 2019, and 124 in 2018.

This is expected to be driven by the Singapore businesses expanding overseas, of which 60% plan to use virtual connections to support their expansions, according to a separate independent survey commissioned by Equinix.

Singapore businesses lead the region’s interconnection deployment in six industries, the most for any market: cloud and IT services, telecommunications, manufacturing, banking and insurance, energy and utility, and content and digital design. However, it lost to Hong Kong and Tokyo in terms of the average by industry.

Asia Pacific’s bandwidth will 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 cloud in all other regions.

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