The facilities will allow these key enablers of digital transformation to streamline their continued growth, while strengthening Equinix’s leadership position in the cloud ecosystem, as enterprises increasingly embrace hybrid multi-cloud as the IT architecture of choice.
“The formation of our JV with GIC is a strategic milestone for Equinix as we continue to deepen our relationships with the world’s largest cloud and hyperscale companies and help them meet their core workload deployment needs and gain proximity to the thriving business ecosystems available at Equinix,” said Charles Meyers, president and CEO of Equinix (pictured).
“Similarly, as today’s businesses are increasingly moving to implement hybrid multi-cloud strategies for their digital infrastructure, Equinix serves as a unique on- and off-ramp to execute that strategy. We look forward to launching similar JVs in other operating regions and believe these efforts will continue to further differentiate Equinix as the trusted centre of a cloud-first world.”
The initial six facilities in the JV, which is in the form of a limited liability partnership with GIC and is worth more than $1 billion, will be located in the Amsterdam, London (two sites), Frankfurt (two sites) and Paris markets, on some of Equinix’s existing International Business Exchange (IBX) data centre campuses.
Facilities:
The Equinix LD10 IBX facility has been sold to the joint venture. The portion of the facility that has been dedicated to hyperscale deployments has been re-named the LD13x xScale data centre and will provide 10MW of capacity for xScale customers. The balance of the facility, which is dedicated to retail colocation deployments, will be leased by Equinix from the JV and will retain the Equinix LD10 IBX name.
The former Equinix PA8 IBX in Paris, which has also been sold to the joint venture, has been re-named the PA8x xScale data centre. The first phase of the facility opened in Q1 2019, and the second and final phase is expected to open in Q4 2019. At full buildout, PA8x is expected to support 14MW of capacity for xScale customers.
The FR9x xScale data centre in Frankfurt will add 10MW of capacity in Q3 2020 when the initial phase is opened. At full capacity, the facility is expected to support 18MW of capacity.
The LD11x xScale data centre in London will add 10MW of capacity for hyperscale customers in Q1 2021 when the initial phase is opened. At full capacity, the facility is expected to support 19MW of capacity.
Signed on 1 July 2019, xScale data centres will serve the unique core workload deployment needs of a targeted group of hyperscale companies, including the world’s largest cloud service providers.
xScale data centres provide hyperscale companies a differentiated value proposition from existing wholesale data centre operators in two key areas:
xScale data centres offer access to Equinix’s comprehensive suite of interconnection and edge services. These services tie into the hyperscale companies’ existing access points at Equinix, thereby increasing the speed of connections to their existing and future enterprise customers; and
xScale data centres are engineered to meet the technical and operational requirements and price points of core hyperscale workload deployments. This enables hyperscale companies to consolidate core and access point deployments into one global provider to streamline and simplify their rapid growth.
