Equinix Opens New London Data Center

Equinix Inc. (EQIX) has completed the phase 1 build out of its London Slough (LD4) data center. The first customers moving into the new site include "a leading global financial services firm and one of the world's top five providers of IT services," according to Equinix. The Slough site is the largest of Equinix's four data centers in London, with a first phase featuring 5,000 square meters (53,800 square feet) of technical space. Phase 2 of LD4 is scheduled to come online in summer 2008, adding an additional 53,800 square feet of data center space.

"The opening of the site represents a significant increase in our capacity and allows us to maintain our momentum in this important market," said Russell Poole, General Manager - United Kingdom for Equinix. "We are able to meet increasing demand from organizations seeking to leverage Equinix's secure and robust colocation facilities, as well as the multitude of carriers offering network services at Equinix."

The Slough LD4 facility uses renewable energy sources from the Slough Heat & Power renewable energy station, which generates hot water and electricity for local businesses by burning wood chips and fiber cubes made from used paper and cardboard. The data center was built by IXEurope prior to its acquisition by Equinix for $55 million. In July IXEurope announced that it had increased the power available at LD4 from 8MVA to 24MVA in phased increases, allowing the provision of high power density data center space to customers. Equinix also recently expanded the power capacity at its London LD2 facility to allow it to make additional colocation space available.

The purchase of IXEurope gave Equinix an additional 14 data centers with 380,000 square feet of space throughout Europe, including centers in London, Zurich, Frankfurt, Munich, Paris, Dusseldorf and Geneva. The former IXEurope is now operating as Equinix UK Ltd.