Following a strong Q2, data centre provider Equinix is expanding its North America and APAC footprint.
The company said it is entering the second phase of expansion of its third International Business Exchange (IBX) data centre in Singapore, dubbed SG3.
The colo is investing $54 million on building out the facility, bringing total expenditure in Singapore to $350 million. The building will see capacity increased from its original 1,000 cabinets to 3,000.
SG3 is Equinix’s largest facility in the APAC region, counting with a gross floor area of approximately 385,000 square feet, which can accommodate nearly 5,000 cabinets at full build.
The expansion of the Singaporean hub is linked to the country’s IoT Smart Nation project that aims to make Singapore one of the most connected spots on Earth.
Clement Goh, MD at Equinix South Asia: "Singapore is en-route to becoming a Smart Nation, integrating all aspects of technology into a coherent and cohesive whole to improve the way people live, work and play."
Steve Leonard, Executive Deputy Chairman at the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) revealed to CBR that prototypes of smart deployments are being made in the city-state (for example, lampposts), which are connected via fibre to data centres.
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He added: "We are now testing what type of configurations [we need], the quality of the connection and the security of the connection, for example. It is not live data at the moment, but we are doing that to prove to ourselves that it works."
Daniel Beazer, senior analyst at Peer 1 Hosting, told CBR: "Singapore is certainly growing faster than more mature [data centre] markets such as the US and EMEA. It has hard won reputations for being an easy place to do business and a ‘gateway location’.
"There is a potential investment opportunity for British firms," with the same happening in Hong Kong, the analyst said.
Equinix’s Singapore expansion is not the only one announced by the firm, with a $500 million investment planned for West Plano, Texas, to build and expand existing facilities.
In a lease signed with T5 Data Centers (T5 DC), Equinix will build a 6MW facility at T5’s 315,000 square feet Dallas data centre, according to T5 DC.
T5 DC said that in addition to the current lease, Equinix has obtained rights to install a customised data centre of 20-25 MW on the adjacent 16-acre site owned by T5 DC. The venture will see fiber connectivity and interconnection services boosted.
Pete Marin, CEO of T5 Data Centers, said: "With only one data hall of 1.5MWremaining in T5@Dallas available for lease, we are excited to be expanding our presence in Dallas very soon."
Equinix has since March this year opened five new facilities across the globe including its 86,000 square feet LD6 hub in Slough, outside London.
