Colo giant Equinix has unveiled plans to invest $113m in expanding its European data centre portfolio as demand for digital services soars.
The company will build a new International Business Exchange (IBX) in Amsterdam, Netherlands at its existing campus at the Amsterdam Science Park.
Named AM4, Equinix’s newest expansion project will add capacity to meet growing demand for hybrid cloud, interconnection and connectivity to business ecosystems across a number of vertical markets and internet exchanges.
The $113m investment will go towards AM4’s first construction phase alone, which will house 1,555 cabinets. The first phase is expected to be completed by Q2 2017.
Once the hub has been fully built, Equinix estimates it will have invested $189m and have a total of 4,200 cabinets on eight floors of data centre space with a total usable floor area of more than 124,000 sq ft.
A final date for a full opening of all construction phases has not been set.
AM4, which will stand more than 70 meters high, will be adjacent to Equinix’s AM3 data centre, which was opened in 2012 and expanded last year.
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Eric Schwartz, president EMEA at Equinix, said: “Amsterdam continues to play a significant role in facilitating the flow of data that supports the digital economy.
“With the build of AM4, Equinix will bring to market more opportunity for interconnection to connect companies to their customers, employees and partners and to ultimately accelerate their business performance.”
Equinix’s expansion plans in Amsterdam are some of the first since the company was required by the European Commission to divest eight hubs in Europe in order to get the body’s approval on its $3.6bn acquisition of TelecityGroup.
Part of that list of eight data centres were two facilities in Amsterdam.
Elsewhere, in Frankfurt, Cologne-based Art-Invest Real Estate has acquired a data centre leased to Equinix (FR7) from MELF Monti I.
The companies have not disclosed the transaction’s value. The hub has 215,000 sq ft of available space and it is located in Gutleutstrasse.
This acquisition was also propelled by the EC’s decision that made Equinix sell eight data centres which the company added to its portfolio following TeleCity’s acquisition.
