The Total Economic Impact™ Of Equinix Networking Solutions

Reduced Infrastructure Deployment Costs Through Automated Provisioning

Evidence and data. Interviewees reported that their organizations’ infrastructure-provisioning activities that previously required significant manual effort from network and infrastructure teams could be completed through Equinix’s automated provisioning capabilities and self-service portal. Automation reduced the administrative effort associated with deploying and configuring infrastructure resources, accelerated deployment timelines, and lessened dependence on highly skilled engineering resources for routine provisioning tasks.

• This benefit reflects the monetization of time savings of the network administrators and architects. Manual infrastructure provisioning required 32 hours of network engineering effort per instance, while provisioning through Equinix’s automated portal required 4 hours per instance. Organizations therefore saved 28 hours per provisioning instance.

• The benefit quantification does not include the difference between provisioning on-demand and the process of ordering physical equipment to be delivered and installed, which can avoid significant delays in project timelines.

• Interviewees indicated that beyond the direct labor savings, automation improved deployment consistency, reduced coordination requirements among teams, and enabled infrastructure resources to be more quickly deployed in support of business initiatives.

Modeling and assumptions. Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• Network engineering labor is valued at a fully burdened rate of $115 per hour.

• The composite organization completes 50 provisioning instances per year. Provisioning volumes remain consistent throughout the analysis period.

• Labor hours saved are assumed to be redeployed toward higher-value infrastructure, network, and transformation initiatives rather than resulting in direct headcount reductions.

• The benefit is categorized as an operational efficiency gain generated through reduced manual effort and faster deployment execution.

Risks. Key factors that may influence the magnitude of the realized benefit include:

• Organizations may already have partially automated provisioning processes, reducing the incremental time savings available.

• Deployment frequency may be lower than modeled, resulting in fewer provisioning events each year.

• Highly standardized environments may require less manual effort before implementation, shrinking the productivity improvement.

• Engineering teams may continue to perform manual validation, governance, or change-control activities that limit realized labor reductions.

• Adoption of automated provisioning workflows may occur more gradually than expected across infrastructure teams.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $360,000.

Reduced Network Infrastructure Costs Via Software-Defined Connectivity

Evidence and data. Interviewees’ organizations reduced WAN/network connectivity costs by replacing traditional MPLS circuits with software-defined connections delivered through Equinix Fabric. Instead of provisioning dedicated physical telecom circuits between locations and cloud providers, enterprises could establish virtual connections on demand, significantly lowering recurring network expenses.

• Interviewees attributed networking footprint growth to evolving business needs, specifically but not exclusively due to AI initiatives.

• Interviewees also stated that their end goal was not to convert entire networking infrastructures to this virtual software-defined model — but they targeted elements of operations that would most benefit with the agility and performance associated with Equinix Networking Solutions.

• Each interviewee’s organization started with a specific use case then subsequently added capacity. One interviewee, an AVP of engineering in the insurance/financial services industry, identified the ideal balance as two-thirds virtual and one-third physical networking for its infrastructure.

Modeling and assumptions. Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite organization increases its network connections from 120 to 160 while increasing Fabric adoption from 20% to 60% over three years. Savings are calculated based on the number of migrated connections multiplied by annual per-connection cost avoidance.

• The model assumes an average annual savings of $12,000 per migrated connection (equivalent to approximately $1,000 per month).

Risks. Key factors that may influence the magnitude of the realized benefit include:

• Actual benefits depend on migration pace, achievable carrier cost reductions, network growth rates, and execution effectiveness.

Results. To account for these uncertainties, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $1.5 million.

Connectivity Cost Reduction Through Dynamic Bandwidth Scaling

Evidence and data. Interviewees described a common challenge with traditional network procurement models: Bandwidth is typically purchased in fixed increments and sized for peak demand, resulting in significant periods of underutilization. As traffic patterns fluctuate across cloud environments, partners, and enterprise applications, organizations frequently pay for capacity that is not consistently used.

Equinix Fabric enables organizations to provision, increase, decrease, and decommission connectivity through software rather than relying on fixed-capacity circuit purchases. This capability allows network teams to align bandwidth consumption more closely with actual business demand while reducing network spend and avoiding unnecessary long-term commitments to bandwidth capacity that may not ultimately be required. The customer interviews indicated that organizations increasingly view network connectivity as an elastic resource rather than a fixed infrastructure investment.

The financial model assumes that organizations can reduce connectivity costs by dynamically scaling bandwidth requirements over time rather than maintaining excess capacity.

Supporting evidence from the customer research showed that:

• Organizations were increasingly shifting from static network capacity planning toward on-demand connectivity models.

• Software-defined networking enabled bandwidth changes without traditional carrier provisioning cycles.

• Dynamic bandwidth management reduced overprovisioning and improved network cost-efficiency.

• Savings increased over time as more traffic and connectivity services were moved onto software-defined infrastructure.

Modeling and assumptions. Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The annual volume of enterprisewide physical MPLS connections is consistent with the previous quantified benefit, reflecting the net physical connections as the network expands and virtual connections grow.

• The fully burdened cost of dedicated per-partner infrastructure is estimated to include MPLS/private line circuit, router infrastructure, maintenance/support, and operational overhead.

Risks. Several factors may influence an organization’s ability to realize the modeled benefit:

• Variability in bandwidth utilization patterns. Organizations with highly variable traffic demands are likely to realize greater value from dynamic bandwidth scaling than those with predictable or consistently high utilization levels. Enterprises with stable network requirements may have fewer opportunities to reduce excess capacity.

• Existing carrier and connectivity contracts. Organizations operating under long-term bandwidth commitments or minimum-spend agreements may face constraints that limit their ability to immediately reduce connectivity costs.

• Adoption of software-defined connectivity. The modeled savings assume increasing utilization of Equinix Fabric and dynamic bandwidth management capabilities over time. Organizations that migrate more slowly than expected may realize lower connectivity savings during the analysis period.

• Traffic growth and business expansion. Actual results may vary depending on cloud adoption, application usage patterns, and overall network growth.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $1.1 million.

Network Egress Cost Avoidance Through Private Traffic Exchange

Evidence and data. As organizations continue to expand their use of cloud platforms, SaaS applications, partner ecosystems, and AI workloads, interviewees reported that increasing volumes of traffic move between cloud environments, enterprise infrastructure, and external providers. In traditional architectures, much of this traffic traverses public internet paths, often resulting in network transit costs, cloud egress charges, and additional operational overhead.

Interviewees also discussed how private interconnection enables organizations to exchange traffic directly among clouds, partners, and enterprise environments without relying on public internet routing. By moving traffic onto private connections, organizations can reduce exposure to network transit costs while improving predictability, security, and performance. The vice president of core network service at a financial services organization described the value of moving critical traffic away from public internet paths and onto private connectivity, improving predictability, resiliency, and overall network performance.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The financial model assumes that, as adoption of Equinix Fabric increases, a growing percentage of enterprise traffic is exchanged through private interconnection rather than public internet transport. This shift creates measurable cost avoidance by reducing network egress expenses associated with traditional traffic-routing approaches.

• The model assumes a gradual increase in private interconnection adoption over the three-year analysis period.

Risks. Several factors may influence the magnitude of realized savings:

• Traffic migration rates. The model assumes that private traffic exchange adoption increases from 20% in Year 1 to 60% in Year 3. Organizations that migrate workloads, applications, or connectivity relationships more slowly may realize lower savings than modeled.

• Cloud and network pricing variability. Actual egress savings depend on cloud provider pricing structures, traffic volumes, geographic deployment models, and existing carrier agreements. Organizations with different pricing arrangements may experience higher or lower levels of cost avoidance.

• Traffic growth assumptions. The opportunity to avoid egress costs is directly related to the volume of traffic flowing among clouds, enterprise environments, and third parties. Lower-than-expected growth in cloud adoption or data movement may reduce realized benefits.

• Application architecture requirements. Not all workloads are suitable for migration to private traffic exchange. Technical, operational, or regulatory requirements may limit the percentage of traffic that can be routed through private interconnection services.

• Ecosystem participation. The value of private traffic exchange increases as more cloud providers, partners, and services become available through direct interconnection. Realized benefits may vary depending on the extent to which an organization’s connectivity ecosystem can leverage private exchanges rather than public internet routing.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $174,000.

Unquantified Benefits

Benefits that provide value for the composite organization but are not quantified for this study include:

• Improved business agility via on-demand provisioning and extensive partner network. Interviewees emphasized that Equinix Networking Solutions increased organizational agility by reducing provisioning timelines from weeks or months to hours or days. Combined with direct access to a broad ecosystem of cloud providers, carriers, partners, and service providers, interviewees’ organizations were able to accelerate cloud initiatives, support new business requirements, and establish connectivity more quickly than traditional carrier-based approaches.

• End-user and/or customer gains with lower latency. Interviewees reported meaningful improvements in network performance by bringing connectivity closer to users, cloud providers, and business ecosystems via the Equinix network of global data centers. Reduced latency improved application responsiveness and customer-facing interactions, particularly for high-volume transaction needs and cloud-based workloads.

• Reduced security, compliance, and governance risk through private connectivity. Interviewees described value from moving traffic away from the public internet and onto private connectivity paths. In addition to performance benefits, private interconnection supports stronger security controls, data governance, and compliance requirements by reducing exposure to public-network risks. Several interviewees viewed these advantages as particularly important for highly regulated industries and mission-critical workloads.

• Reduced business disruption through improved resiliency and failover capabilities. Interviewees reported improved resiliency through redundant connectivity paths, geographically distributed architectures, and simplified failover capabilities. Organizations were able to maintain business operations during infrastructure disruptions and network outages, reducing the potential operational and financial impact of downtime on critical applications, transactions, and customer-facing services.

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Equinix Networking Solutions and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:

• Enables future business opportunities through an extensive partner ecosystem. Interviewees noted that Equinix’s broad ecosystem of cloud providers, carriers, financial institutions, service providers, and business partners provides long-term strategic flexibility. As new business requirements emerge, organizations can more quickly establish connections and avoid lengthy network redesigns or infrastructure investments. Several interviewees described value in maintaining architectural flexibility as technology requirements evolve. Equinix’s broad ecosystem and provider-neutral connectivity approach give organizations the ability to adopt new platforms and services without fundamentally redesigning underlying network architectures.

• Supports expansion into new regions and acquired businesses. Interviewees described Equinix as a foundation for geographic expansion and business growth. The company’s global footprint, private connectivity options, and extensive partner network reduced the complexity of supporting new locations, integrating acquisitions, and addressing regional compliance or data sovereignty requirements.

• Provides a foundation for future AI, distributed infrastructure, and network modernization initiatives. Interviewees emphasized that investing in Equinix Networking Solutions positions their organizations to support future technology initiatives, including AI deployments, distributed infrastructure strategies, SD-WAN transformations, and software-defined networking. Organizations can adopt new cloud providers, AI platforms, partners, and emerging services without fundamentally redesigning connectivity architectures. By providing scalable, virtualized connectivity and access to emerging technology partners, Equinix helps organizations adapt as business and technology requirements evolve.

• Creates flexibility to adopt additional Equinix services over time. Several interviewees described Equinix as a strategic platform that could support future adoption of additional services, including observability, Network Edge, Cloud Router, and other emerging offerings. Because Equinix already serves as a trusted connectivity foundation, organizations can more easily evaluate and deploy new capabilities as requirements change. Interviewees also described value in having a connectivity foundation capable of supporting future Equinix innovations. As Equinix expands toward more managed and intent-based experiences through Fabric One, organizations may have opportunities to further simplify connectivity operations while building on the underlying capabilities evaluated in this study.