Equinix Buys Frankfurt Data Center

Equinix, Inc. (EQIX) is back in expansion mode. The colocation and interconnection specialist has acquired a 130,000 square foot (12,000 square meter) data center in Frankfurt, Germany. Equinix also announced that it has begun building out the third phase of its huge NY4 data center in Secaucus, New Jersey. The expansions were announced today as the company released its second quarter earnings.

The expansions will add capacity in two high-demand markets where demand continues to outpace supply and Equinix has experienced strong demand from financial services companies. The announcements come just a week after Equinix announced an expansion in Chicago at 350 East Cermak, the city's primary financial data center hub.

"New York and Frankfurt continue to be strong markets for colocation and interconnection services, with significant growth from the enterprise, network and financial services industry," said Steve Smith, president and CEO of Equinix. "Financial market participants rely on Equinix’s existing community of financial trading companies and electronic trading networks for low-latency order flow and trading. This key differentiator has enabled Equinix to build the leading ecosystems of financial market participants in both New York and Frankfurt, as well as other key financial markets globally."

Former Exodus Site Acquired
Equinix will pay $30 million (€21 million) to purchase an existing data center formerly operated by Exodus Communications in the southwestern region of Frankfurt, one of Europe's leading financial and connectivity hubs. The FR4 center will have a total capacity of 107,000 square feet of data center space at completion, with a capacity of 3,300 cabinets.

The facility will be built out by Equinix in multiple phases, with the first phase expected to open in November 2009, adding approximately 1,700 cabinets. The company expects to invest up to $10 million (€7 million) in capital expenditures in the first phase to opgrade (or "Equinize") the facility. 

NY4 Secaucus Expansion
The $100 million third and final phase expansion of Equinix’s NY4 data center will add 1,250 sellable cabinets to the 340,000 square foot center. When the third phase opens in mid-2010, the NY4 data center will have a total of 4,050 cabinet equivalents and be the largest data center operated by Equinix.

The expansions will add capacity within two markets where the demand for quality network-neutral colocation space and network interconnection services continues to outpace supply. In both markets, Equinix has experienced strong demand from financial services companies in the region.

Equinix has seen strong growth in both Frankfurt and New York forits Equinix Financial eXchange, which allows financial companies to directly exchange data within the same physical location, accelerating their electronic trading operations.

Expansion Space on Frankfurt Campus
With the addition of the new FR4 center, Equinix will have a total of 720,000 square feet (67,000 square meters) of gross data center space across four different data centers in the Frankfurt market. The FR4 center will be located on a seven-acre campus, part of which is available for future development. It will be directly tethered to Equinix’s three other centers in the Frankfurt market, enabling customers to interconnect between the four locations as if they were in the same building.

The NY4 center is Equinix’s fourth New York area IBX center, all of which are directly linked through redundant dark fiber links managed by Equinix. The $95 million first phase of the NY4 center was opened in November 2007 and is currently over 95 percent booked. The $82 million second phase of the center, which opened in May 2009, is over 60 percent booked or reserved by customers.