Building a sustainable infrastructure foundation: Virtualise networking infrastructure

Sustainability is becoming a bigger driver of IT buying decisions, thanks to increasing regulation on climate reporting as well as growing consumer and investor demands. Environmental responsibility is an imperative for businesses now, and IT operations can be a big contributor to a company's environmental impact—sometimes the biggest contributor. 

According to a report from S&P Global Market Intelligence, the number of organisations that have implemented or are developing formal targets for reducing environmental impact¹ is on the rise. Some already have target dates for reaching net-zero carbon emissions. And half see IT operations as accounting for most or all their environmental impact. Thus, companies of all sizes are exploring how to improve the sustainability and efficiency of their IT infrastructure and building relationships with vendors that have credible sustainability commitments. 

Here's how organisations can further optimise networking efficiencies through virtualising networking infrastructure. 

The sustainability impact of networking
Before we dive into the ways you can improve the efficiency of your networking, let's look at a few points about how networking impacts environmental sustainability overall. Many companies are becoming more technology focused thanks to digital transformation, and as a result, businesses are more aware of the carbon emissions impacts of energy used by IT and networking systems. As they become more data- and IT-driven, they're gathering, exchanging, storing and analysing massive amounts of data across their networks. For example, experts expect data generated by IoT devices to exceed 90 zettabytes by 2025, up from 64 zettabytes annually from the current 23.8 billion connected devices. The ways we aggregate, manage and exchange all this data consumes energy, which results in carbon emissions². 

While we don't yet have a widely accepted industry-standard methodology for measuring the net carbon emissions of networks, we know that improving their efficiency can potentially reduce the impact of IT on emissions overall. And it's likely that more network carbon emissions measurement tools will appear in the future. Some telecommunications companies, for example, have already created a digital carbon calculator for their customers.³ In the future, we can expect clearer KPIs in the industry for more energy-efficient networking. We can only confidently improve what we can measure.

Improve network efficiency with virtualisation
Networks play a crucial role in transferring critical data for everyday life and business operations. As networks handle increasing amounts of information exchanged among various participants—clouds, partners, service providers, enterprises, applications and edge devices—optimising this data exchange becomes strategic or even mission-critical. 

As you consider network modernisation initiatives, you should think about optimising how you manage and exchange your data locally and globally in a way that's efficient, secure and compliant. One of the easiest ways to do this is through virtualising your network on a platform that allows you to tap into "as a Service" options for many elements of your network. 

With virtualised networks, companies can benefit from:

• On-demand networking solutions: Virtualisation enables companies to efficiently utilise network services by activating them only when required, reducing underutilisation of overprovisioned network resources. Think of it like turning lights on only when necessary.
• Better application performance: The principle by which networks can be architected to be more efficient can also help to improve application performance, enabling quick adaptation to changing business requirements.
• Built-in features: Organisations can take advantage of power management features and self-healing capabilities offered by virtual networks, freeing up resources that otherwise would have gone into complex setups for redundancy.
• Reduced management effort: Through central management and control, virtualised deployments streamline management and significantly impact operational efficiency despite a more distributed architecture. Automating network configuration, provisioning, load balancing and more can also streamline operations and reduce manual effort.
• Faster time to market: With virtualised networking, companies can provision network services in minutes instead of weeks.
• Improved security: By creating virtual network segmentations and providing granular access control and centralised management, virtual networks can enhance security.
• Proximity to key transaction points: With virtual services, companies can extend infrastructure closer to their customers, services and transaction points the business depends on. 
• Support sustainability: Modernising networks for efficiency could also optimise the use of key resources, including power.

Whether you're implementing an SD-WAN, designing a multicloud network to future-proof your networking infrastructure, or rearchitecting your hybrid IT, it makes sense to consider how it all aligns with your sustainability strategy and targets. 

Deploy sustainable digital infrastructure at Equinix
Migrating to an Equinix colocation facility that's covered by 100% renewable energy can substantially reduce your carbon emissions. Once your infrastructure resides in a facility covered by renewables, there are lots of ways to keep building onto your sustainable infrastructure foundation. Equinix digital services offer several ways to consume network infrastructure on demand:

• Equinix Network Edge virtual networking services like firewalls, routers, load balancers and SD-WAN devices reduce the complexity and cost of network modernisation.
• Equinix Fabric software-defined interconnection services enable direct virtual connections to partners and service providers.
• Equinix Fabric Cloud Router enables quick, cost-effective virtual routing across multiple clouds.   

And all these virtual networking services have the added benefit of improving efficiency and optimising the resources required to run your IT infrastructure. 

1. Growing number of enterprises have net-zero emissions target date, S&P Global Market Intelligence, August 29, 
2. Data Analytics Trends in 2024: Key Insights and Statistics, DOIT Software, June 10, 2024. 
3. BT, Digital Carbon Calculator.