Equinix ME1 expansion complete

Equinix has completed the second-phase expansion of its International Business Exchange (IBX) in Melbourne, known as ME1, which is located in Port Melbourne, 2.5 kilometres from the CBD.

The $37 million investment provides 750 new cabinets and brings an additional 1600 square metres of co-location space to the facility.

Completion of the second phase brings the total operational capacity of ME1 to approximately 1125 cabinets and a total co-location area of 3300 square metres.

More than 25 network service providers (NSPs) are represented in the data centre from an ecosystem of more than 100 customers.

Equinix has 28 IBX data centres in APAC, in five countries and eight metros, including SY1, SY2 and SY3 in Sydney, ME1 in Melbourne, and its new SY4 facility, opening soon in Sydney.

“The development and expansion of ME1 phase two addresses the growing demand from businesses planning to expand into Melbourne, which is now home to 25% of the Australian business population,” said Jeremy Deutsch, managing director of Equinix Australia.

“Melbourne is a significant site for us, and one of the most requested by our customers.”

One of those customers is Yarra City Council, which is using Equinix for cloud connectivity via Equinix Cloud Exchange, specifically Microsoft Azure and Office 365, as well as for data backup and disaster recovery.

Since deploying in the ME1 facility for co-location services, the council has saved around $1770 on power consumption per month.

“Our vision in the next two years is to move our existing data centre operations into Equinix and pursue our cloud-first innovation strategy,” said Rick Bottiglieri, the council’s innovation manager.

“This means our staff and the population of Yarra stand to benefit significantly from improved platforms and services and increased, high-speed connectivity.”

Image courtesy Equinix.