Equinix will invest US $42 million to expand its SY4 International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in Sydney to meet the rising demand for additional capacity and interconnection services.
Equinix's phase two expansion will host an additional 1,500 cabinets, bringing the total capacity to 3,000, with a total usable floor space of more than 12,500 square metres (130,000 square feet).
The expansion is expected to be completed by the end of 2017.
Equinix's SY4 IBX data center opened in August 2016, and is located in Alexandria, four kilometres from Sydney's CBD.
The US $42 million investment is the latest in a series of expansions for Equinix in Asia-Pacific, with other recent expansions in Melbourne, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore.
In a recent Equinix survey of 1,000 global IT decision makers, the global data center company found that Australia is one of the leading countries pursuing interconnection.
This drive towards greater interconnection makes a significant bottom-line impact on businesses and markets, says Equinix, as 40% of interconnected Australian companies realise there is more than US$10 million (AUD $14 million) in revenue opportunities and cost savings.
Jeremy Deutsch, managing director, Equinix Australia, says an interconnection-first strategy for IT is now central to realising digital transformation, and Australia is fast becoming an interconnection hot spot.
“Equinix has the capability to provide organisations with direct, private access to the leading cloud providers, as well as many specific cloud services, offering organisations the perfect environment to embrace hybrid cloud architecture,” adds Deutsch.
“Today, we are already supporting more than 100 local and multinational companies in SY4.
“Our investment in SY4 demonstrates our ongoing commitment to providing the most robust architecture and interconnection options that allow customers to accelerate business relationships and speed to market."
According to Equinix, 86% of enterprises use the cloud and, with key cloud players like Amazon, Google and Microsoft, Australia is already the largest Infrastructure-as-a-Service market in the Asia-Pacific region.
Foad Fadaghi, managing director, Telsyte, says that with more enterprises and managed service providers moving to the cloud, including for security and data protection, additional data center capacity in Australia is growing in demand.
“There is also an increased desire among CIOs to leverage a highly interconnected IT architecture, and providers that have location and interconnectivity advantages are best suited to deliver value to clients."
Equinix has four data centers in its Sydney campus, and in total has 29 IBX data centers in Asia-Pacific.
Today Equinix's total global footprint covers 179 IBX data centers across 44 markets.
"As we see the demand for connectivity between the United States and Australia and New Zealand increases, we've chosen SY4 as our point of presence from which our customers can access the bandwidth available on Hawaiki,” says Remi Galasso, chief executive officer, Hawaiki.
“From inside Equinix, we have a significant opportunity to grow, leveraging the dense connectivity opportunities to other networks, content providers and IPs.
“With the expansion of SY4, this is only set to open more doors for us in the future."