60% businesses plan to expand to new regions despite the pandemic: Report

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way the world works. One wave after another has forced companies across the globe to explore more agile work environments. At the same time, it raised concerns that companies will have to put brakes on their expansion plans for now. But now, a new report has lessened some of those concerns.

Digital infrastructure company Equinix recently shared results of a report wherein it surveyed 2,600 IT executives from diverse enterprises across 26 countries in the Americas, Asia-Pacific and EMEA regions. In its survey in the Asia-Pacific region, the company found out that 60% of businesses still have plans to expand into new regions, countries or metros despite the pandemic. Of the 60% of the businesses, 57% of digital leaders plan to achieve this expansion virtually, rather than by investing in the physical IT infrastructure in-market.

The report also said that 57% of businesses have rearchitected their IT infrastructure to meet new remote and hybrid working demands, with tech budgets increasing to accelerate digital transformation.

Furthermore, the report says that 63% of digital leaders believe there will be long-term changes to where and how people work within their organisation, while 61% of IT leaders said they believe interconnection, which includes the direct and private exchange of data between organisations, will help them to navigate the challenges they face due to the pandemic. Interestingly, the IT leaders stating interconnection was key to their organisation’s survival increased to 57%, which is a significant jump from the 44% of the IT leaders that believed in the interconnection last year.

As far as the post-pandemic era is concerned, as per the report, 46% of the digital leaders surveyed in Asia-Pacific said they have accelerated digital transformation plans because of the pandemic, while 44% said their budgets have been increased to satisfy the rapid growth in digital demands.

Additionally, about two-thirds of the IT companies said they have revised their IT strategy as a result of Covid-19, while 64% said they want to invest in technology to be more agile post-Covid.

Lastly, the survey revealed that 76% of respondents in Asia-Pacific reported digitising their IT infrastructure was a top priority, with 61% saying they see interconnection as a key facilitator of digital transformation, which is an increase of 12% from last year’s results.