The facility – known as RJ2 – is designed to allow Equinix to meet increasing demand for data centre services in the region, and is said to be the first and only Tier III-certified data centre in the city.
“Brazil continues to be of great strategic importance to Equinix and our global customers looking to access the Latin American market to capitalise on the abundance of growth opportunities it presents,” said Charles Meyers, COO at Equinix.
“The RJ2 facility in Rio is the latest in our ever-expanding global footprint of IBX data centres built to the highest of industry standards.”
RJ2 has a capacity for 320 cabinets, and Equinix is investing a further $36 million in an additional 850 cabinets.
The launch comes ahead of various major international sporting events in the country, meaning ISPs, mobile operators and network broadcasters will need to invest in capacity infrastructure to meet the expected explosion in demand.
Presently, over 800 companies are co-located in Equinix’s Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo data centres and earlier this year, Equinix announced plans to launch a data centre in Osaka, Japan.
