Equinix and Singapore-based GIC (Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund) announced in July it would form a $1.0 billion European data center joint venture – to develop and operate ‘xScale data centers’ in Europe. Now the formation of this joint venture has been completed.
These xScale data centers will serve the core workload deployment needs of a targeted group of hyperscale companies, including the world’s largest cloud service providers (CSPs). The facilities would allow these CSPs to streamline their continued growth, while supporting Equinix’s position as a colocation data center operator in the cloud ecosystem – as enterprises would increasingly embrace hybrid multi-cloud as their IT architecture of choice.
The initial six xScale data centers in the joint venture will be located in the Amsterdam, London (two sites), Frankfurt (two sites) and Paris markets, on some of Equinix‘s existing IBX data center campuses.
Equinix in London, Frankfurt, Paris
The Equinix LD10 IBX facility in London, UK has been sold to the joint venture. The portion of the facility that has been dedicated to hyperscale deployments has been re-named the LD13x xScale data center and will provide 10 megawatts (MW) of capacity for xScale customers. The balance of the facility, which is dedicated to retail colocation deployments, will be leased by Equinix from the joint venture and will retain the Equinix LD10 IBX name.
The former Equinix PA8 IBX in Paris, France which has also been sold to the joint venture, has been re-named the PA8x xScale data center. The first phase of the facility opened in Q1 2019, and the second and final phase is expected to open in Q4 2019. At full buildout, PA8x is expected to support 14MW of capacity for xScale customers.
The FR9x xScale data center in Frankfurt, Germany will add 10 MW of capacity in Q3 2020 when the initial phase is opened. At full capacity, the facility is expected to support 18MW of capacity.
The LD11x xScale data center in London will add 10MW of capacity for hyperscale customers in Q1 2021 when the initial phase is opened. At full capacity, this facility is expected to support 19MW of capacity.
Different from Wholesale DCs
These xScale data centers provide hyperscale companies a differentiated value proposition from existing wholesale data center operators in two key areas:
- xScale data centers offeR access to Equinix’s comprehensive suite of interconnection and edge services. These services tie into the hyperscale companies’ existing access points at Equinix, thereby increasing the speed of connections to their existing and future enterprise customers.
- xScale data centers are engineered to meet the technical and operational requirements and price points of core hyperscale workload deployments. This would enable hyperscale companies to consolidate core and access point deployments into one global provider to streamline and simplify their rapid growth.
“The formation of our joint venture with GIC is a strategic milestone for Equinix as we continue to deepen our relationships with the world’s largest cloud and hyperscale companies. We help them meet their core workload deployment needs and gain proximity to the thriving business ecosystems available at Equinix,” said Charles Meyers, President and CEO of Equinix. “Similarly, as today’s businesses are increasingly moving to implement hybrid multi-cloud strategies for their digital infrastructure, Equinix serves as a unique on- and off-ramp to execute that strategy. We look forward to launching similar joint ventures in other operating regions and believe these efforts will continue to further differentiate Equinix as the trusted center of a cloud-first world.”
For years, hyperscale operators, including Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Google Cloud, have partnered with Equinix to leverage Equinixs global platform of more than 200 IBX data centers to directly connect to their strategic business partners and customers.
Equinix already offers a wide range of access points – the “on- and off-ramps to the cloud” – to top global cloud service providers. In addition to these customer access points, hyperscale companies are investing in large-scale data center deployments to accommodate their rapidly growing core workload needs. With xScale data centers, hyperscale companies can add core deployments at Equinix to their existing access point footprints, enabling their growth on a single platform that spans more than 50 global metros and offers direct interconnection – within a vibrant set of ecosystems – to their customers and strategic business partners.
