Equinix Expands in Frankfurt, Dusseldorf

Equinix (EQIX) today announced the opening of new data centers in Frankfurt and Dusseldorf, along with plans to expand its existing Frankfurt-2 (FR2) center. The company said the expansions are part of a wider strategy to increase data center capacity in Frankfurt, a major global trading hub where the company has seen significant growth in demand to participate in Equinix Financial eXchange.

Equinix now operates four data centers in Frankfurt, all of which are directly linked by redundant dark fiber, enabling all Frankfurt-based customers to interconnect as if they were in the same physical location.

"Equinix is seeing strong demand for colocation and interconnection services in Frankfurt, with significant growth coming from the city’s financial services industry," said Eric Schwartz, president of Equinix in Europe. "Equinix’s Frankfurt IBX data centers are already a key destination for financial services firms wishing to improve their trading operations by directly connecting with their trading partners and utilizing low-latency links to other financial markets around the world. The new FR4 center, together with the planned expansion of FR2, will provide the capacity to grow this community even further."

The phase I opening of the $30 million FR4 center, which is located in the southwestern region of Frankfurt, comprises 1,700 cabinet equivalents and 6,000 gross square meters (65,000 gross square feet) of data center space. The data center is being built out in multiple phases and, when complete, will total 12,000 square meters (130,000 square feet), with capacity for approximately 3,300 cabinet equivalents.

Elsewhere, in the north of the city, the planned $18 million expansion of the FR2 IBX will add 2,500 square meters (27,000 square feet) of data center space, with capacity for approximately 660 cabinets. The FR2 IBX expansion will be completed in phases, between April and September 2010.

Equinix has also opened its new Dusseldorf-2 (DU2) IBX data center, adding 560 cabinets and 2,700 square meters (29,000 square feet) of gross data center space in Dusseldorf. Located southeast of the city, the new center will be tethered to Equinix’s original Dusseldorf IBX data center (DU1) through dark fiber links, enabling existing DU1 customers to seamlessly grow their data center operations.

“Demand for premier data center services continues to outpace supply across all major European metro regions,” said Schwartz. “Equinix is focused on closing this gap between demand and supply and is committed to expanding its capacity, by both building new data centers and systematically upgrading existing ones.”