Digital Flows and the New Economy

QUARTERLYREVIEWAPRIL – JUNE 2016

GLOBALIZATION 3.0Expanding Cloud Footprint Across Europe and Asia with AWS Direct Connect Reliance Communications and IBM Partner to Accelerate Adoption of Cloud Computing in IndiaGCX Launches Cloud X Platform in Sydney & Expands Global Footprint into AustraliaScaling out Broadcast as a Service (BaaS) Globally with Broadcast Media CommunicationsGCX Expands Reach across Europe with TI Sparkle

DIGITAL FLOWS AND THE NEW ECONOMY

MEETTHE FORCEBEHINDDIGITALThe world is on an exciting digital journey.

From financial transactions to governance, from retail to healthcare, new possibilities are endless. The digital world is more connected, more efficient, more convenient and more environment-sensitive. As India embarks on its digital journey, Reliance is The Force behind making this vision a reality! With a network spanning 285,000 route km from India across the globe; 10 world-class Data Centers; a revolutionary CLOUD X portfolio; and a wide bouquet of Enterprise Communications solutions, Reliance Communications (RCOM) and its global subsidiary Global Cloud Xchange (GCX) are helping Enterprises, SMEs and government agencies achieve their digital dreams. As The Force behind digital, we are opening new frontiers and delivering a truly next generation digital galaxy today.

EMPOWERING DIGITAL INDIA

Call us: 1800 200 111 Email us: [email protected] Visit us online: rcom.co.in/business Global: globalcloudxchange.com

MEETTHE FORCEBEHINDDIGITALThe world is on an exciting digital journey.

From financial transactions to governance, from retail to healthcare, new possibilities are endless. The digital world is more connected, more efficient, more convenient and more environment-sensitive. As India embarks on its digital journey, Reliance is The Force behind making this vision a reality! With a network spanning 285,000 route km from India across the globe; 10 world-class Data Centers; a revolutionary CLOUD X portfolio; and a wide bouquet of Enterprise Communications solutions, Reliance Communications (RCOM) and its global subsidiary Global Cloud Xchange (GCX) are helping Enterprises, SMEs and government agencies achieve their digital dreams. As The Force behind digital, we are opening new frontiers and delivering a truly next generation digital galaxy today.

EMPOWERING DIGITAL INDIA

Call us: 1800 200 111 Email us: [email protected] Visit us online: rcom.co.in/business Global: globalcloudxchange.com

MESSAGE FROM

BILL BARNEYChief Executive OfficerRCOM (Enterprise) & GCXWelcome to this edition of RCOM/GCX Quarterly Review where we will take you on a journey to explore a new era of digital globalization. While defined largely by flows of data and information, elastic networks are the clarion call of today. Our challenge is to enhance how we enable global businesses to leverage virtual servers to deliver services and apps, while seamlessly harnessing the mandates of security and interconnectivity in this age of digital globalization (see cover story, page 8).

Over the past quarter, we have taken some solid steps forward in boosting our Cloud footprint with the extension of our Cloud X Fusion ecosystem with direct access to Amazon Web Services (AWS) in London, Frankfurt and Tokyo as well as our collaboration with IBM to accelerate Cloud adoption in India (page 2-3). As we continue to ramp up our Oceania footprint, we have announced the deployment of our Cloud X platform in Sydney, Australia in addition to our partnership with NEXTDC to offer seamless, on demand network connectivity, through their data centers, to a wide range of Cloud and network providers across Australia and New Zealand (page 4-5).

We are also solidifying our presence in Europe with our partnership with Broadcast Media Communications (BMC) to deploy Global Media Network across our Cloud X nodes in Palo Alto, Hong Kong and London, offering media companies global access and full workflow orchestration through the Broadcast as a Service (BaaS) suite of software solutions by BMC (page 6). We have also established a multiservice PoP at TI Sparkle SICILY HUB in Palermo to provide enhanced coverage and increased diversity options to support our customer’s business growth in the region (page 7).

We hope you enjoy this edition of RCOM/GCX Quarterly Review. As always, we look forward to hearing from you on how we can better serve your network requirements.

Best regards,

Bill

CONTENTS EDITORIAL TEAM DISCLAIMERNEWS PAGE 2-7

COVER STORY PAGE 8-11

PRODUCT UPDATE PAGE 12

EVENTS PAGE 13-15

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE PAGE 16

Executive Editor: Lorain Wong

Editor: Genevieve Li

Creative Director: Roger Margido Proeis

Cover Story: Cain Nunns

Design: Aaron Chan

Production: Jennifer Bao

Quarterly Review is published quarterly by Global Cloud Xchange

Please email your feedback and suggestions to [email protected]

For additional information on RCOM & GCX, please visit our website: rcom.co.in | globalcloudxchange.com

© 2016 Global Cloud Xchange All rights reserved

Quarterly Newsletter | April - June 2016

NEWS Quarterly Newsletter | April - June 2016

2 rcom.co.in globalcloudxchange.com

EXPANDING CLOUD FOOTPRINT ACROSS EUROPE AND ASIA WITH AWS DIRECT CONNECT

Global Cloud Xchange (GCX) recently extended Cloud X Fusion ecosystem with a direct access to Amazon Web Services (AWS) in London, Frankfurt and Tokyo, offering enterprise customers a robust cloud solutions that drive new business opportunities.

“London, Frankfurt and Tokyo are key business hubs and the deployment of Cloud X Fusion in these cities forms an integral part of our global cloud strategy,” said Bill Barney, CEO, Reliance Communications (Enterprise) & Global Cloud Xchange. “Our expanded coverage across Europe and Asia further supports the strategic cloud requirements of our customers with enterprise grade connectivity from 90 countries to securely connect their on-premise environments directly into an AWS Direct Connect inter-connection over our global infrastructure.”

Through GCX’s extensive global network, Cloud X Fusion provides seamless, latency-guaranteed connectivity across developed and emerging markets in the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia, which gives enterprises the security, the

reliability and predictability as they connect to the AWS cloud services while tapping into bandwidth dynamically with usage-based consumption.

Cloud X Fusion is part of GCX’s Cloud X portfolio, a proprietary platform designed to seamlessly combine the speed and power of fiber optics with the agility, flexibility and cost-efficiencies of “pay-as-you-go” cloud computing; available globally and controlled by a simple-to-use user portal.

Together with Cloud X Fusion, AWS Direct Connect enables enterprises to establish private connectivity between AWS platform and their datacenter, office, or colocation environment, to reduce network costs, increase bandwidth throughput, and provide a more consistent network experience than Internet-based connections.

Cloud X nodes has been launched in Hong Kong, Palo Alto (California), London, New York and all five Indian cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad) since 2014, with plans to roll out additional nodes in the next 12 months.

3NEWS

RELIANCE COMMUNICATIONS AND IBM PARTNER TO ACCELERATE ADOPTION OF

CLOUD COMPUTING IN INDIA

Reliance Communications (RCOM) has teamed up with IBM to provide its customers with a complete portfolio of highly secure and scalable Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offerings running on the IBM Cloud.

As one of India’s leading integrated telecommunication service providers, Reliance Communications has a client base of over 115 million, including over 39,000 large enterprises and small and medium business (SMBs) across industries. The company will not only offer IBM Cloud infrastructure services to its customers but it has also launched new offerings designed to provide end-to-end integrated e-commerce services for India’s SMB market—all running on the IBM Cloud.

“Indian enterprises are increasingly leveraging cloud for business transformation and require sophisticated new levels of support to expand their e-commerce operations. Through our partnership with IBM, customers will instantly benefit from the added flexibility and global reach to be more competitive, especially as we look at new opportunities from the “Digital India” program,” said Braham Singh, SVP of Global Product Management, Reliance Communications (Enterprise) & Global Cloud Xchange.

Recent research by IBM reveals communication service providers (CSPs) are recognising cloud services as a growing service line for their organisations, and integral to driving new revenue streams with customers. IBM is partnering with a number of leading CSPs in major markets including Bell Canada, Indostat, Telstra (Australia), Reliance (India), AT&T and Verizon.

IBM Cloud delivers fast, easy and automated access to public, private and hybrid cloud services to help clients digitally transform. IBM Cloud is a growing collection of services including analytics, mobile, networking, storage, Internet of Things and cognitive computing. With 47 global Cloud Data Centers, IBM helps companies securely manage and gain insight into their data no matter where it resides.

Cloud is a transformative growth engine for business, both enterprises and SMBs, across industries in India. SMBs are migrating on cloud and using cloud-based technologies to scale up their operations. Through this alliance Reliance Communications will be able to provide enterprises, especially the SMBs, a robust infrastructure platform to run their important business applications. This will help them streamline their operations, increase efficiency and give them an option of pay as you use model.

Reliance Communications’ long-standing relationships with enterprises will help drive widespread awareness and adoption of cloud services.

“We are delighted to partner with Reliance Communications and support their efforts to offer our Cloud services in the Indian market. With a broad cloud portfolio, deep expertise and data privacy, the IBM Cloud offers businesses the ability to optimize its resources and investments to drive growth. With this collaboration, we will be able to address the requirements of organizations who have limited access to enterprise – grade cloud solutions” said Vivek Malhotra, Cloud Leader, IBM India / South Asia.



GCX LAUNCHES CLOUD X PLATFORM IN SYDNEY & EXPANDS GLOBAL FOOTPRINT INTO AUSTRALIA Global Cloud Xchange (GCX) launched Cloud X in Sydney on February 15, 2016, as part of the company’s expansion and Global Network upgrade across Australia and New Zealand. This high performance enterprise-class platform delivers applications and content across the company’s privately owned global fiber optic network.

Cloud X is uniquely designed to deliver not only infrastructure provisioning in a few clicks, but the deployment of complex multi-tiered enterprise applications directly on to enterprise networks in minutes, rather than months. The Cloud X platform supports network transparency -- a key element in accelerating enterprise applications to the Cloud.

“Cloud X is changing the paradigm of cloud computing,” said Bill Barney, Chief Executive Officer, Reliance Communications (Enterprise) and Global Cloud Xchange. “The Network must now undergo a profound transformation, from a static entity, to a dynamic, intelligent, application-aware fabric that can support multiple traffic requirements, diverse geographies and flexible pricing models.”

“GCX’s Cloud X orchestration portal will not only simplify infrastructure deployment but also de-risk migration to the Cloud for our customers in ANZ,” said Dave Pearson, Managing Director, Global Cloud Xchange ANZ. “With our strategic expansion of Cloud X in Australia and New Zealand, ANZ-based Enterprises will instantly benefit from the added flexibility and global reach to be more competitive, especially as we look at new opportunities in today’s fastest growing emerging markets.”

Last November, GCX announced the expansion and upgrade of its Global Network across Australia and New Zealand with four new Points of Presence (PoPs) in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Auckland, providing enhanced coverage and increased diversity to address the growing demand for premium global connectivity in the region.

One of the key endeavors at GCX over the past year has been the unification of the company’s network assets into a coherent platform that can be provisioned and controlled from a single source. This is part of a strategic realignment of capabilities to support cloud networking requirements, including self-provisioning of network resources and bandwidth-on-demand.

On the heels of network expansion, GCX’s delivery of its Cloud X platform in Sydney, will enable Enterprise customers

across Australia to have on-net access to leading public cloud platforms including AWS, Microsoft Azure, Softlayer, Google, Rackspace, VMWare and more than 20 others worldwide, as well as software services like Microsoft Office 365 and Google Apps for Work.

In addition, GCX has also inked a partnership with NEXTDC Limited, to expand its global footprint into Australia with a presence in NEXTDC’s M1 Melbourne and S1 Sydney data centers.

GCX’s scalable global IP and MPLS network provides direct interconnections to third-party networks, with a managed network services platform that connects approximately 27,000 sites in 158 countries.

The availability of the AXONVX virtual exchange across all NEXTDC facilities is an attractive additional feature for GCX as this opens up on-demand access to

customers throughout Australia through the automated provisioning and flexible bandwidth available from the independent community of AXONVX network service providers.

“Our expansion across key data centers in Australia and New Zealand further enhances our global network and Cloud capabilities to meet the ever-increasing demand for global collaboration, the adoption of cloud, and open up new markets for our customers,” said Dave Pearson, Managing Director of Australia and New Zealand, Global Cloud Xchange. “ANZ based enterprises can now securely connect to our global network and access public cloud providers worldwide.”

NEXTDC CEO Craig Scroggie commented, “The ability to access interconnection platforms like GCX’s is bringing new value to data centre operations, and when matched with the AXON virtual

exchange available in data centers across the country, offers seamless, on-demand network connectivity to a wide range of cloud and network providers.”

Global Cloud Xchange owns the world’s largest private undersea cable system spanning more than 67,000 route kms which, seamlessly integrated with Reliance Communications’ 200,000 route kms of domestic optic fiber backbone, provides connections to 40 key business markets worldwide spanning Asia, North America, Europe and the Middle East, and enables GCX to deliver managed services to more than 160 countries.

5NEWS

GCX LAUNCHES CLOUD X PLATFORM IN SYDNEY & EXPANDS GLOBAL FOOTPRINT INTO AUSTRALIA



SCALING OUT BROADCAST AS A SERVICE (BaaS) GLOBALLY WITH BROADCAST MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS

Global Cloud Xchange (GCX) and Broadcast Media Communications (BMC) team up to successfully deploy BMC Global Media Network across GCX Cloud X nodes in Palo Alto (California), Hong Kong and London, offering media companies global access and full workflow orchestration through the Broadcast as a Service (BaaS™) Suite of software solutions by BMC.

“Consumers today expect rapid evolution and expansion in their choice of content experiences, making it a priority for broadcasters and media companies to accelerate their technology innovation to keep pace,” said Tim Horsfield, Co-Founder and CEO of Broadcast Media Communications. “By leveraging GCX Cloud X platforms to scale out our BaaS™ offering globally, we can now combine traditional broadcast functions with a secure private cloud environment that enable functionality and work flow to suit the strategic business requirements of the media industries.”

Cloud X is uniquely designed to deliver applications on a virtualized infrastructure, enabling automated deployment of on-net Cloud services across GCX’s privately owned global fiber optic network. The Cloud X platform supports network transparency — a key element in accelerating enterprise applications to the Cloud.

“Our Cloud X orchestration portal will not only simplify infrastructure deployment but also de-risk migration to the Cloud for leading broadcasting customers such as BMC,” said Braham Singh, SVP of Global Product Management, Reliance Communications & Global Cloud Xchange. “We are very pleased to further expand our relationship with BMC and support their business growth globally.”

This announcement follows last year’s successful broadcast of Spain vs England match from Rico Perez Stadium in Alicante, Spain to ITV London studios.

7NEWS

GCX EXPANDS REACH ACROSS EUROPE WITH TI SPARKLE

Global Cloud Xchange (GCX) has expanded its reach into TI Sparkle SICILY HUB in Palermo with a multiservice PoP, providing enhanced coverage and increased diversity options to support the customer’s business growth in the region.

With an ever growing presence of multi-breed global players, TI Sparkle’s Next Generation Data Center and open ecosystem SICILY HUB continues to attract new eyeballs, content and interconnections to international infrastructure and a complete service marketplace where service providers, content and media players and system integrators have an opportunity to grow their business.

Located closer than any other European peering point to North Africa, the Mediterranean and the Middle East, TI Sparkle SICILY HUB is served by Seabone, TI Sparkle’s Tier 1-grade Global IP Transit service, while its open and resilient configuration supports carriers and ISPs that want to enhance the redundancy of their networks.

In addition, through DE-CIX’s IX platform, SICILY HUB allows carriers that land their IP backbones in Sicily to directly interconnect with each other and to other providers

that have a presence in the facility. These other providers include some of the world’s most well-known and largest content players.

“Global Cloud Xchange latest presence in our Sicily Hub with a multiservice PoP confirms how relevant Palermo is becoming as the Hub of choice for any global player active in the Mediterranean, Africa and the Middle East,” says Alessandro Talotta, Chairman and CEO TI Sparkle.

“GCX has a committed and long standing history of serving customers across Europe as the region continues to be a strong market for us,” said Bill Barney, CEO, Reliance Communications (Enterprise) & Global Cloud Xchange. “The new Palermo PoP complements our existing capabilities in the region, while further enhancing our ability to meet the growing demand for high performance, low latency connectivity across Africa, the Mediterranean and the emerging markets.”

TI Sparkle SICILY HUB has been designed with the most advanced technologies and follows the most restrictive technical parameters typical of Telecom Italia Group’s Next Generation Data Centers.

COVER STORY Quarterly Newsletter | April - June 2016


IN COPENHAGEN, Steffen Hedebrandt, Head of Growth and Marketing at Airtame, and a digital globalization evangelist settles into a call through an app.

“The Internet means you don’t have to do anything you don’t find interesting. You can always find people to help you. We are the first generation where globalization is truly global,” said Hedebrandt.

Hedebrandt, who previously ran a vintage musical instruments web platform employing workers from Pakistan, India, Copenhagen, Romania, Austria, the US and the UK, found his new job by posting on LinkedIn. He says within a few days 20 people contacted him to discuss work opportunities.

“Two years ago, my employer ran one of the biggest crowdfunding campaigns in Europe, raising 1.3 million euros overnight. That’s globalization: you put an idea on a crowd funder and people from everywhere support you.”

IN OTTAWA, Shopify, which started with a team of five employees working from a coffee shop, helps retailers build online sales platforms. It now has about 250,000 small businesses under its banner and has rung up over 14 billion dollars’ worth of product through its registers.

Both Shopify and Hedebrandt are two different sized cogs in digital globalization.

According to US-based management consultancy McKinsey & Company’s recent study Digital globalization: The new era of global flows, which dissects the growth of cross-border “flows” in the global economy -- breaking them down to goods, services, finance, people and data and communications – digital information more than doubled between 2013 and 2015.

It estimates that flows of capital, goods, services and data pumped an extra $7.8 trillion to the global economy in 2014 and for the first time, data flows accounted for slightly more than the actual global trade in goods.

McKinsey says the trade and finance growth that built the 20th Century’s global economy has stalled. Last year was the sharpest dip in the value of goods, services and finance traded since the apex of the global financial crisis in 2009.

But its not all bad. That dip has been met at the nexus of surging cross border data. And that, experts say, is an economic signpost that the digital economy is structurally transforming the old order.

In 2012, nearly half of the $26 trillion of global cross-border flows were knowledge-intensive -- goods and services that are built through substantial R&D investments or highly skilled labor that transmit information, ideas, or expertise. What’s telling is that they are growing at 1.3 times the rate of labor-intensive flows.

GLOBALIZATION 3.0DIGITAL FLOWS AND THE NEW ECONOMY

by Cain Nunns

9COVER STORY

Bandwidth has grown 45 times over the past decade and is estimated to surge nine fold by 2020 as digital flows of commerce, information, searches, video, communication, and traffic continue to explode.

While change is rapid, the writing has been on the wall for years.

In 1996, preeminent Spanish sociologist Manuel Castells, a leading voice on the information society, communication and globalization, published The Rise of the Network Society, where he identified new ways global economic activity was being organized around the networks that new telecommunication technologies provided.

The Balzan Prize winner highlighted the massive builds of Internet infrastructure during the dot-com boom, when telecommunications companies laid thousands of miles of fiber-optic cable all over the world, turning network communications into a commodity.

Later, New York Times’ columnist Thomas Friedman’s 1999 book The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization focused on the replacement of the abruptly irrelevant Cold War system. The globalization that Friedman was talking about revolved around the outsourcing of labor-driven manufacturing to the Third World and resources and commodities trading.

By the time the three-time Pulitzer winner released international best seller The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century in 2005, he was arguing that we had entered a new structural change and countries, companies, and individuals would need to be global “flatists” to remain competitive in a market where “historical and geographical divisions are becoming increasingly irrelevant.”

Friedman rightly believed the container age was being replaced by the convergence of the personal computer, fiber-optic Internet connections, and software, which created a “flat-world,” ushering the advent of small groups and individuals going global.

But just six years later, Friedman self-deprecatingly trumpeted changes from the book’s release: “I said the world is flat. Yeah, we’re all connected. Facebook didn’t exist; Twitter was a sound; the cloud was in the sky; 4G was a parking place; LinkedIn was a prison; applications were what you sent to college; and Skype, for most people, was a typo.”

Irving Wladawsky-Berger knows more about structural changes than typos.

His parents fled the persecution of 1930s Eastern Europe, only to land in Cuba, which underwent its own seismic political shift when Fidel Castro’s communist forces swept from the mountains and into Havana’s halls of power in 1959.

continued, page 10

COVER STORY Quarterly Newsletter | April - June 2016


Shortly after, Castro nationalized his family’s business and they were on the move again. This time to New York, where he embarked on a 37-year career with IBM as a worldwide oracle identifying emerging technologies and marketplace developments critical to the future of the IT industry.

The former co-chair of the US President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee says the world is a very different place today. The constant advances of digital technologies such as mobile devices, cloud computing, Internet of Things, social networks and Big Data coupled with the long march of surging Internet access globally means each technology isn’t in a vacuum, but interacts with the others and amplifies itself and the rest combined.

“Every time you have a major technological based revolution there is a group of people left behind. The next generations adapt, do well and create new jobs, but that doesn’t mean that everybody benefits, says Wladawsky-Berger via Skype from the confines of his New York apartment.

“The technology is developing faster but the impact on society is still taking time. A lot of (the economic structural changes) we think we’ve never seen before, we

actually have. The reality, however, is that most of the trade around the world now takes place through digital flows.”

Today, about 12 percent of worldwide trade is shuffled through e-commerce properties such as Alibaba, Amazon, Shopify and eBay. Facebook says 50 million SMEs use its platform, doubling in number from a few years ago. It’s a staggering figure given a World Bank estimate that there were only 125 million SMEs in 2010.

Facebook alone has more users than China has people. If Internet and social media properties counted users the way

countries conduct a census, then only China, India and United States would crack the top 12. About 44 million people find work on freelancer platforms and over 400 million have LinkedIn profiles.

“It’s huge to have digital infrastructure up to par. To not have that is to be outside the global economy. Its absolutely critical, and even more so in the world of cloud. The companies that have the best cloud data centers are incredibly professional from an engineering point of view along with their scalability, security and efficiency. There is a tremendous opportunity now for the right firms that can provide bandwidth,” says Wladawsky-Berger, who works with former IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano to mentor young tech entrepreneurs from places as far flung as Kathmandu, Dar Es Salaam, Lagos and Yangon.

“Cloud has revolutionized the production of services and apps in the same way Toyota revolutionized manufacturing after World War II. The applications are very intuitive, very easy to use, and are a boom in emerging economies because it allows them to skip a generation of business efficiencies.”

But interconnectivity in the age of digital globalization requires networks to communicate inherently. Elastic networks are the clarion call of today and business applications hosting in their own premises, third-party data centers, and SaaS provider domains need hooks into other networks.

Elasticity allows global businesses of today and tomorrow to leverage virtual servers to enable services and apps to be

“THIS IS NOT YOUR FATHER’S GLOBALIZATION,” SAID JAMES MANYIKA, DIRECTOR OF MCKINSEY GLOBAL INSTITUTE AT THE REPORT’S LAUNCH IN MARCH. “THE WORLD CONTINUES TO BE MORE CONNECTED. A LOT HAS CHANGED IN THE LAST TWO YEARS ABOUT HOW WE SHOULD THINK ABOUT HOW GLOBALIZATION (IS BEING) DRIVEN BY THESE FORCES.”

11COVER STORY

moved and scaled up or down on without affecting the end user.

“To turn connectivity into a competitive advantage, you need an elastic network that’s flexible, adaptable, scalable and easy to manage,” said Wilfred Kwan, Chief Operating Officer of Reliance Communications (Enterprise) & Global Cloud Xchange from Hong Kong.

Kwan says the network needs to support on-demand creation of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and its ability to deploy them without human interaction.

“Global Cloud Xchange has begun to interconnect our large capacity backbone to multiple third-party clouds and created a scalable orchestration engine that will soon interconnect network services, and

NFV services coming to our Cloud X IaaS platform. You will be one step closer to a smarter network that gives you an advantage over your global competitors.”

BILL BARNEY, CEO, RCOM (ENTERPRISE) & GCX TO KEYNOTE AT DATACLOUD EUROPE 2016Now in its 3rd year in Monaco, and twelfth year for the European event, Datacloud is the bellweather for cloud and data centres. Hosted in an outstanding backdrop, the event offers a professional range of services for sponsor and exhibitor ROI.


PRODUCT UPDATES Quarterly Newsletter | April - June 2016

NEW GCX TRANSMISSION POP, EQUINIX LD4

GCX recently announced our presence in one of the leading carrier-neutral UK data centers on the outskirts of London, Equinix LD4 in Slough, UK. LD4 is a key data center for a variety of OTT, cloud, IT companies and large enterprises.

Slough is located near to Heathrow airport, approximately 20 miles to the west of the City of London. Equinix LD4 is a hub for more than 550 companies as well as playing host to the London Internet Exchange (LINX), one of world’s largest Internet Exchanges with more than 380 members from 54 countries. And with the establishment of our presence in LD4, we can more easily connect into 5 other major data centers in the Slough area.

ROUTES, PRODUCTS & CAPACITY AVAILABLEThe new Equinix LD4 PoP is fully integrated with FA-1 (North) with a dedicated backhaul route connecting into the Cornwall Skewjack Cable Landing Station, meaning we can now offer

direct routes across the Atlantic from Slough LD4 to the GCX transmission PoP at 111, 8th Avenue in New York (via the North Port Cable Landing Station).

Previously, we had a presence in Equinix LD4 in alliance with Perseus, enabling us to offer “ultra-low latency” (ULL) services between key financial hubs in Europe and the US. This new GCX-only route offers a latency of 32.27 ms (round trip delay of 65.53) between LD4 and 111, 8th Avenue which is not considered to be ULL, and hence should be positioned primarily to the OTT, wholesale and large enterprise markets alongside our other trans-Atlantic routes.

On launch, the GCX products we can offer from Equinix LD4 are Capacity Services (CS) and International Private Leased Circuit (IPLC) with 10G LAN PHY available at this stage. In the coming weeks this will be further enhanced to support Optical Wave Services (OWS) up to 100Gbps.

As Big Data gets bigger and the Internet of Things continue to change our lives in ways yet imagined, telecom service providers and data center operators are in a race against time to keep up with new mandates of digital transformation, said Bill Barney, CEO of Reliance Communications (Enterprise) and Global Cloud Xchange in a keynote address titled “Digital Transformation: A Quiet Revolution in Bits & Bytes” that kicked started the PTC’16 conference on Tuesday, 19 January 2016 at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

Barney also shared insights on how to align strategies to trends as “MNCs & New Media will focus on India, one of the fastest growing markets, in the next decade and emerging markets will play host to the biggest cloud revolution,” in order to maximize leverage and business benefits in the ever evolving digital world.

Aside from discussing the industry trends, one of the traditions at PTC was the annual GCX- Sponsored Football Match, bringing lots of cheers and excitement to the Aloha State. GCX also hosted an evening cocktail reception at the Mahele Suite for partners and customers to network under the setting Hawaiian sun.

PTC’s annual conference by Pacific Telecommunications Council, brings together senior industry leaders and provides them with opportunities to build partnerships with one another and share insights on industry trends, business strategies, policy and regulations, best practices, and new communication technologies and services. PTC facilitates the open exchange of ideas and commerce and supports ongoing research, education, and training that foster positive social and economic development.

Bill Barney, CEO, RCOM (Enterprise) & GCX keynotes at PTC’16.

CEO Bill Barney and Managing Director of ANZ Dave Pearson, with guests at the GCX cocktail reception at PTC’16.

PTC annual football (soccer) match.

13PRODUCT UPDATES / EVENTS

EVENTS Quarterly Newsletter | April - June 2016

RCOM/GCX AT PTC ‘1617-20 JANUARY 2016


EVENTS Quarterly Newsletter | April - June 2016

RCOM/GCX AT CAPACITY MIDDLE EAST1-3 MARCH 2016

NANOG 66 SAN DIEGO8-10 FEBRUARY 2016GCX US team took part at the NANOG 66 meeting in San Diego a great platform to freshen up skills, learn advanced networking techniques, discover new applications, as well as discuss intriguing policy issues. The three day event on February 8-10, 2016, was held at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina in San Diego, California and gave GCX US team an opportunity to exchange insights on the latest technology trends with industry peers and leaders.

GCX took part at Capacity Middle East 2016 in Dubai on March 1-3, 2016, a pivotal industry platform for all operators and service providers active in the Middle Eastern telecoms market, to discuss the latest happenings in the networks, digital services, customer experience and wholesale ecosystems.

The three day event gave RCOM/GCX sales team an opportunity to showcase our networks solutions and Cloud X to customers, industry peers and leaders.

GCX AT CARRIERS WORLD ASIA 201615 MARCH 2016

As wholesale carriers and operators continue to transform in the new digital age, RCOM (Enterprise) & GCX CEO Bill Barney addressed the audience in his keynote speech on “The Role of Carriers in a Global, Connected Economy” at the Carriers World Asia 2016 held at the Centara Grand Centralworld on March 15, 2016 in Bangkok.

During Barney’s keynote address, he shared the challenges and opportunities present for carriers as we approach an Internet of Things era and what the billions of connected devices mean for the telecoms industry in terms of data, networks and revenue sources. Barney concluded that with IoT Ecosystem continues to grow, successful operators will play in three key areas - The Application Space, The Emerging Markets and The Large Digital Transport Business.

GCX’s President of Asia Pacific Fabrizio Civitarese also spoke at the conference, joining executives from BT, Etisalat, NTT and Telecom Italia Sparkle in a panel discussion “Staying innovative and on top of the game: How can carriers reinvent, rethink and revolutionise their role in the industry?” to discuss the future of the wholesale industry and contemplate possible trends and challenges.

The 18th annual Carriers World Asia was held on 15 – 16 March 2016 at Centara Grand & Bangkok Convention Centre at Central World, Bangkok. Featuring new content, country market updates and discussions on the future of the telecommunications industry, it continues to be Asia’s most premier event for over 400 international carriers, operators, authorities and suppliers.

GCX CFO SPEAKS AT THE TMT FINANCE & INVESTMENT ASIA 20169 MARCH 2016

GCX’s CFO Rory Cole joined executives from ING Bank, Natixis Australia and Moody’s in a panel discussion “Subsea Cable Investment - Where are the opportunities across the region?” to discuss key drivers for current and future undersea cable investment across Asia. They also shared insights on how investors/financiers evaluate the economics of privately owned and consortium/telecom owned undersea cable projects as well as the key regulatory issues on March 9, 2016 at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

TMT Finance conferences provide a unique platform for top tier executives, financiers, investors and advisers to meet and assess regional strategy and investment opportunities.

15EVENTS

GCX AT AWS SUMMIT BERLIN 201612 APRIL 2016

SYDNEY MEDIA BRIEFING & CUSTOMER RECEPTION15 FEBRUARY 2016

GCX AMATA SPRING GOLF TOURNAMENT17 MARCH 2016

GCX Germany and its partner Equinix showcased its joined Cloud offerings through the interconnection of Cloud X Fusion and Equinix Cloud Exchange, which will benefit both customers with added flexibility and global reach. As an AWS Technology Partner, GCX also offers Cloud X Fusion ecosystem with a direct access to Amazon Web Services (AWS) across Europe and Asia. The AWS Summit Berlin was part of the global AWS Summit series, held on 12 April 2016 at the Station Berlin.

Bill Barney, CEO, RCOM (Enterprise) & GCX recently hosted a media briefing to launch Cloud X in Sydney at Café Sydney on February 15, 2016, as part of the company’s expansion and Global Network upgrade across Australia and New Zealand. GCX also hosted an “Enter The Cloud” cocktail reception at the Scarlett Restaurant, Harbour Rocks Hotel in Sydney to catch up with our customers.

GCX has organized a golf tournament, hosted by Fabrizio Civitarese, President of Asia Pacific, at the Amata Spring Country Club in Thailand, where GCX team and our customers showed off some impressive swings.

APRIL-JUNE 2016 EVENTS

ITW 20168-11 MAY 2016CHICAGO, US

TELECOM ASIA AWARDS & TELCO STRATEGIES CONFERENCE 201618-19 MAY 2016KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

DATACLOUD EUROPE 20168-9 JUNE 2016MONACO

NANOG 6713-15 JUNE 2016CHICAGO, US


INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE Quarterly Newsletter | April - June 2016by Tom Gowen

TURNING CONNECTIVITY INTO A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: THE AGE OF ELASTIC SERVICES INFRASTRUCTURE

Cloud technologies have finally matured into an effective replacement of old Data Center and hosting methodologies. Some of those lessons learned need to be applied to the Networks that support them.

The Cloud has introduced many new concepts and innovative ways to design, deliver, and support global business applications, and among them, the one that soars about the rest, is the idea of a Hybrid Cloud model, or rather the idea that all applications are not created equal. What global companies like about this model is that Infrastructure should dynamically adapt to the needs of each application, doing away with convergence over a single (i.e. expensive) architecture, and doing away with manual configurations and static support of infrastructure. It also embraces the concept that in most cases the applications are not even hosted by the business anymore, rather by a Software as a Service or 3rd party provider.

While initial deployments of Hybrid Cloud solved the business need of choosing the right architecture for the right application, it was still missing the dynamic ability to automatically move workloads, or more importantly, the ability to automatically build services based on Infrastructure elements. Thus Elastic Computing was born. Elasticity in the cloud allows businesses to leverage virtual servers to enable services and apps to be moved around and scaled up or down on the fly without affecting the end user, saving time and money and enabling any business to be a dynamic global business.

The problem we face today is that while the Cloud is now smart enough to instantly change the infrastructure based on the needs of any global business, the underlying networks that connect these Clouds is not.

There has been much research and development on making networks more programmable, with software defined networking and the like, but little in the way

of application to support the essence of the Internet of Things, which is really about a future that is highly interconnected, sharing data globally, and creating entirely new global business opportunities, applications and services.

To turn connectivity into a competitive advantage, you need to build an elastic network that’s flexible, adaptable, scalable and easy to manage, much like the Cloud has already done.

Similarly, elastic networks need to scale and adapt to match the ever-changing and unique demands on each companies infrastructure and business.

So what does Elastic Networking mean in practical application? There are many experts that have many different opinions, most of which are network hardware manufacturers whose opinions rely on their hardware to achieve. But from a conceptual view, the Elastic Network really needs to only have 3 things to be effective – Interconnectivity, Orchestration, and Technology-Automation. IoT could be easy to remember because it is meant to support IoT (Internet of Things)

Interconnectivity means the ability for the Network to talk to other networks inherently. With Business applications hosting in their own premise, 3rd party Data centers, and SaaS provider domains, the Elastic network needs to be able to have hooks into all other networks. Interconnection services like Amazon direct connect and MS Azure express route are only the tip of the iceberg in connecting to multiple 3rd party clouds.

Orchestration means that the network has to be controllable from a portal or integrated orchestration engine. This not only enables devices and services to be

created on demand, but it truly integrates the network elements with the cloud compute elements. It allows business true abstraction of infrastructure. No longer does an application guy have to ask an IT guy for a server with a load balancer and a firewall and an internet connection, he simply presses the “create apache server” button and the orchestration engine dynamically builds the underlying infrastructure.

Technology-Automation means that the network needs to also support on-demand creation of virtual network service functions or traditionally called Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). This gives the ability to not only create virtual network services, but in the long term, allow the network to intelligently deploy such services without human interaction. (i.e. if a site gets hit with a DDoS attack, the network can automatically deploy a scrubber service as needed and then disable after the attack, giving the customer a dynamic service that he only pays for while in use.)

To achieve this dream of Elastic Networking, there will be much trial and error, much like in the early days of Cloud adoption, but for a start, to partner with service providers like Global Cloud Xchange, who has already begun to Interconnect our large capacity backbone to multiple 3rd party clouds, has created a scalable orchestration engine that will soon interconnect network services, and NFV services coming to our Cloud X IaaS platform soon, you will be one step closer to a smarter network that gives you an advantage over your global competitors.

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Documents

Digital Flows and the New Economy