Equinix launches PE3 data centre in Perth

Equinix has opened an International Business Exchange data centre in Perth, named PE3. With an initial investment of $71.7 million, PE3 is the company’s 18th IBX in Australia and strengthens Perth’s position as the digital gateway between Australia, the Asia–Pacific region and the Middle East. Perth is a strategic part of Australia’s internet infrastructure, due to its proximity to Southeast Asia and direct connectivity with Asia–Pacific, European, Middle Eastern and African regions via subsea cables. As the alternative path from Sydney for redundancy and a faster route to key global markets, Perth is a strategic location for global cloud, network and over-the-top (OTT) providers, as well as Australian government, mining and resources sectors.

PE3 meets the growing demand for private low-latency connectivity in Western Australia and provides access to the digital infrastructure building blocks organisations need to support their digital transformation journeys. The PE3 IBX is located adjacent to the PE2 IBX, approximately 22 km from Perth Airport, with a secure link bridge connecting the two facilities. The first phase of PE3 provides an initial capacity of approximately 700 cabinets and a colocation space of more than 1800 m². When fully built, PE3 will offer 1650 cabinets and a colocation space of more than 10,600 m².

Guy Danskine, Managing Director of Equinix Australia, said the opening of PE3 in Australia is another significant milestone for Equinix. Danskine added that continued investment in subsea cables has seen Perth become a key gateway for digital expansion and collaboration into the Asia–Pacific and the Middle East, enabling customers and partners to expand into new regions, countries and metros around the world. “The West Australian market has experienced substantial growth driven by the acceleration of digital transformation across industries. Digital leaders are increasingly coming to Equinix to access all the necessary essential infrastructure required to create a digital advantage,” said Danskine.

The Equinix campus in Perth provides direct access to multiple undersea cables, including the Australian Singapore Cable (ASC) and Indigo Cable systems. In addition, the Oman Australia Cable (OAC) connecting Perth to Muscat through Platform Equinix is forecast to be the first express submarine network to link Australia and the European, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region when complete in the second quarter of 2022. Interconnected with Equinix’s facilities in Australia, PE3 provides customers with access to more than 1000 organisations, including 215 networks and 395 cloud providers, who use Platform Equinix in Australia to address the rising demand from digital leaders that need essential digital infrastructure for future business success.

The PE3 IBX provides a range of interconnection solutions, including Equinix Fabric — an on-demand, SDN-enabled interconnection service that allows enterprises to connect between its own distributed infrastructure and any other company’s distributed infrastructure. This enables customers in Perth to set up direct connectivity with international and local cloud service providers in Australia, including Alibaba, AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud, SAP Cloud and IBM Cloud, as well as major network service providers like Telstra, Optus and Vocus.

As part of its goal to achieve Science-Based Targets and global climate neutrality by 2030, Equinix is increasing and expanding its renewable energy commitment. In August 2021, the ACCC granted authorisation for a joint renewable energy purchasing group led by Equinix, where applicants will pool their demand and collectively tender and negotiate to purchase power from a solar or wind electricity generation facility in Australia. Equinix Australia data centres are certified to meet rigorous environmental and energy management standards. PE3 has adopted a range of green measures, including motion-activated LED lights, high-temperature chilled water set points, DCIM and adaptive control systems, as well as cold/hot aisle containment to reduce the consumption of resources.

With the addition of PE3, Equinix has a national footprint of 18 IBX data centres across Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide and Brisbane. Equinix also operates 51 IBX data centres in Asia–Pacific, across 13 metros in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea and Singapore. Globally, Platform Equinix comprises more than 235 data centres across 65 metros and 27 countries.

Rebecca Brown, Director General of Western Australia’s Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation (JTSI), welcomed Equinix’s investment in the state and the positioning of Perth’s growing importance as a digital gateway to global markets. “Invest and Trade WA looks forward continuing to work with Equinix as the state develops a thriving local technology industry,” said Brown.

Malcolm DeSilva, Head of State and Group Owner, Mining and Energy, for Telstra, added that the past two years have seen greater demand for low-latency, high-performance applications, resulting in significant increases in traffic on networks and subsea cables. “In today’s environment, our partnership with Equinix is essential to getting edge computing as close to our customers as possible, improving the customer experience and helping them pursue a digital-first strategy. Perth is a strategic digital gateway into and out of Australia. The opening of PE3 presents more collaboration opportunities for us to grow in the fast-developing Perth market,” said DeSilva.

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