July 27, 2009 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) –
Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), a provider of global data center services, has announced the purchase and acquisition of a 130,000 square foot (12,000 square meter) data center in Frankfurt, Germany, and the build out of the third phase of the company’s New York-4 (NY4) International Business Exchange (IBX®) data center in Secaucus, N.J. The announcements come as Equinix continues its measured global expansion plan where the company is currently expanding in 10 of the 18 markets in which it currently operates.
The site selected for the Frankfurt expansion (FR4) is located in the southwestern region of the city and will be purchased by Equinix at a cost of approximately $30 million (€21 million). An existing data center formerly operated by Exodus Communications, the FR4 IBX center will have a total capacity of approximately 3,300 cabinet equivalents at full build out and 107,000 square feet (10,000 square meters) of net data center and business continuity space. The center will be built out by Equinix in multiple phases, with the first phase expected to open in November 2009, adding approximately 1,700 cabinet equivalents. Equinix will invest up to $10 million (€7 million) in capital expenditures in the first phase to upgrade the facility to Equinix’s specifications.
The $100 million Phase III expansion of Equinix’s NY4 center will add 1,250 sellable cabinets and represents the final phase of expansion to the 340,000 square foot (31,500 square meters) center. Upon completion of this expansion, the NY4 center will have a total of 4,050 cabinet equivalents at the opening of Phase III, expected in mid-2010. The addition of Phase III makes NY4 the largest data center operated by Equinix globally.
The expansions will add capacity within two markets where the demand for quality network-neutral colocation space and network interconnection services continues to outpace supply. In both markets, Equinix has experienced strong demand from financial services companies in the region.
As New York and Frankfurt represent two major global trading hubs, Equinix has seen significant growth in both markets for Equinix Financial eXchange, an established community of execution venues, buy and sell side firms, and technology utilities that have located at Equinix’s high-performance data centers. At Equinix, these companies can directly exchange data within the same physical location with strategic partners, customers and vendors, thereby optimizing their electronic trading operations. They also have access to a broad range of data center services and high-performance network connectivity providers. Recent companies joining Equinix Financial eXchange include Chi-X Europe Ltd, Deutsche Boerse, NYSE Liffe and 7ticks in Frankfurt, and the Boston Options Exchange (BOX), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), The International Securities Exchange (ISE) and Fixnetix in New York.
“New York and Frankfurt continue to be strong markets for colocation and interconnection services, with significant growth from the enterprise, network and financial services industry,” said Steve Smith, president and CEO of Equinix. “Financial market participants rely on Equinix’s existing community of financial trading companies and electronic trading networks for low-latency order flow and trading. This key differentiator has enabled Equinix to build the leading ecosystems of financial market participants in both New York and Frankfurt, as well as other key financial markets globally.”
With the addition of the new FR4 center, Equinix will have a total of 720,000 square feet (67,000 square meters) of gross data center space across four different IBX centers in the Frankfurt market, solidifying Equinix’s position as the largest provider of network-neutral data center space in the region. The FR4 center will be located on a seven-acre campus, part of which is available for future development. It will be directly tethered to Equinix’s three other centers in the Frankfurt market, enabling customers to interconnect between the four locations as if they were in the same building.
The NY4 center is Equinix’s fourth New York area IBX center, all of which are directly linked through redundant dark fiber links managed by Equinix. The $95 million first phase of the NY4 center was opened in November 2007 and is currently over 95% booked. The $82 million second phase of the center, which opened in May 2009, is over 60% booked or reserved by customers.
