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Mobile players benefit from truly global collaborations

By Jason Friedler.

By 2017, Cisco predicts that there will be nearly 1.4 mobile devices per capita. It's an incredible thought; I wonder – has humanity ever been so connected? The mobile industry certainly feels more connected than ever.

With over six billion users, the ‘virtual world’ of mobile is fast becoming the real world. Growth is coming from two principal areas: pace of demand from customers and regional growth in geographies and industries. Each of these sources of growth is creating significant challenges in the mobile value chain.

Just imagine what could be passing through one mobile network right now…

Thousands of sales teams are almost certainly using cloud services apps to update their records, access product information and schedule meetings.
Perhaps a specialist surgeon is using video over mobile to assist a fellow surgeon thousands of miles away with a life-threatening operation.
Hundreds of IT professionals could be using the Equinix iOS app to get live information from Equinix data centres around the world.
And millions of customers will be catching up on their favourite media.

The reality is much bigger – and more complicated! To cope with growth, many of the CIOs I’ve spoken with are looking to colocate at data centres where they can collaborate to reduce complexity.

Collaboration to reduce complexity

Increased collaboration might sound counterintuitive if you need to reduce complexity, particularly in the mobile value chain. But think of it this way – with more opportunities for collaboration you are able to access the ‘best in breed’ technologies that can simplify complicated processes and remove the headache for you!

So, rather than settle for the only mobile services firm located near you, you can find the right partners and enablers for your needs – and that fit with how you work.

As end-user demand continues to increase, companies within the mobile value chain need to stay ahead of the curve. Speed is everything, so I advise taking the time to choose the right ecosystem partners.

Collaboration to reach new markets

In addition to managing complexity, collaboration with global partners can help you reach new countries and sectors. This is becoming increasingly important for the mobile industry as smartphones, networks and app marketplaces extend into emerging markets.

I believe that such expansion requires a data centre partner with a global ecosystem. This is borne out in Equinix’s mobile ecosystem where members of the value chain leverage direct access to their partners to create solutions that localise traffic, scale bandwidth, and monetise services.

Global collaboration done right

SEVEN® Networks is a great case study for successful global collaboration. SEVEN® helps carriers and handset manufacturers deliver a Real Life, Real Time™ mobile experience through its push-based software platform and applications that deliver data to devices in a network efficient way.

By locating on Platform Equinix™, SEVEN® was able to strengthen its business relationships with mobile operators, major ISPs, mobile applications, and social networks through direct connections. This enhanced the performance, reliability and security of its applications and services around the world, and was a critical part of the equation that ensures SEVEN® can run a profitable business while pursuing new market opportunities.

Today, the SEVEN® Networks support and services team is successfully delivering on over 130 commitments to wireless carriers in over 40 countries worldwide.

Having global credibility is crucial for mobile businesses, as David Ratner, COO, recently explained to some of my colleagues, "when you work with top operators worldwide, you need someone with credibility in that environment."

Equinix connects businesses with partners and customers around the world through a global platform of high performance data centres, containing dynamic partner ecosystems and the broadest choice of networks.

On Platform Equinix you can collaborate with four of the five top smart phone platforms, 50+ mobile network operators, three of the top five mobile OEMs, seven of the top 10 video sites, 8 of the top 10 websites, 9 of the top 10 advertising sites and all of the top five social network sites.

How could global collaboration help you grow your business?

Read the 3rd chapter of our eBook to find out more

Also, watch the Mobile Video Growth video with EE to see how the data centre plays a role in this.