Equinix to launch data centre in Hamburg, its fourth German market

It's clear that Equinix is not wasting any time getting settled in for the new year.

It was only earlier this week that the global interconnection giant revealed plans for a new seven-story data center in Singapore (its fourth in the country) for the cool sum of US$85 million.

And now, the company has disclosed the purchase of a commercial building in Hamburg Germany for $11 million, where it will be investing a further $25 million to redevelop the space in phase one of its data center expansion in the area.

The facility is set to be named the Equinix HH1 International Business Exchange (IBX) data center and will extend the company's reach into its fourth market within Germany – a move the company says is justified by the growing demand for digital infrastructure connectivity throughout Europe.

Equinix intends to refurbish the two-story industrial building (which is around 12,000 square metres) and revamp the space into an interconnection and carrier-neitral colocation environment, consisting of 375 cabinets in phase one and with the capability o expand to 1,875 cabinets at full build.

Equinix's purchase of the facility was closed in December 28 2018, and expects the new data center to be open for business in Q3 2019.

"The German economy continues to be a source of strength in Europe, and demand for interconnection continues to rise to meet the IT transformation needs of businesses," says Equinix EMEA president Eric Schwartz.

"By expanding to a fourth market in Germany, Equinix will provide multinational customers with greater choice of where they build their digital edge."

Equinix's interest in Hamburg certainly seems logical given it has a population of over five million and its metro area is the second largest city in Germany. According to Equinix, there is also a growing technology community that includes several eCommerce companies that demand low latency, increased bandwidth and connectivity.

Equinix asserts the building is perfect for its needs as it is strategically located in proximity to the North Sea, providing easy access for subsea cable landing stations – the company has sealed more than 20 subsea cable landing deals in recent years.

The company maintains a significant presence in Germany with its data centers serving more than 900 companies across nine facilities in Frankfurt, Munich, Dusseldorf, and soon Hamburg.

Equinix has previously committed to committing more than $150 million in organic expansion of its German data centers for the fiscal years 2019-2019.