Equinix to spend $120m on fifth Australian DC

Equinix will invest US$97 million ($122.8 million) to build its fifth International Business Exchange (IBX) data centre in Australia, the SY4, in Sydney.

The interconnection and data centre provider will deploy its new facility in Alexandria, close to the CBD as well as the company's existing three data centres in the city. The four facilities will be connected by a dedicated fibre loop.

SY4 is designed to span over 12,500 square metres and provide 3000 cabinets of capacity when fully complete.

The first-phase deployment of 1500 cabinets is scheduled to come online in the second quarter of next year.

The new project brings Equinix's total investment in Australia to nearly US$360 million. The company has around 600 customers in Australia.

“The NSW government has worked with Equinix to support the company’s growth in Sydney and we welcome the company’s latest investment, which will help to ensure that NSW businesses have the opportunity to leverage world-class interconnection services,” NSW Minister for Trade Stuart Ayres commented.

“These services assist in unlocking new revenue opportunities and drive growth in our digital economy. Our ICT and digital/creative strengths will be on show next month at CeBIT Australia 2015 in Sydney.”

As well as its four Sydney IBX data centres, Equinix opened its ME1 facility in Melbourne last month. Once fully complete, the ME1 facility will encompass 1125 cabinets.

Frost & Sullivan estimates that the Australian data centre services market will grow from $698 million in 2013 to $1.78 billion in 2020, a CAGR of 13.9%.

Image courtesy of Corey Leopold under CC