Equinix to Build Huge Amsterdam Data Center

Equinix announced a plan to build a $190-million, eight-floor data center in the Amsterdam Science Park, a location the company claims is within 50-milisecond network reach of 80 percent of Europe. This will be the Silicon Valley-based giant’s second data center in the Science Park, after it was forced to give up a TelecityGroup facility there to rival and landlord Digital Realty Trust.

Amsterdam is one of the world’s densest network interconnection hubs, where more networks interconnect in various data centers and network facilities and exchange traffic than in most other places. About 38 percent of all Dutch data traffic travels through facilities in the Amsterdam Science Park, according to Equinix, which makes it one of the most valuable data center locations in the world.

Equinix plans to invest $113 million in the first-phase buildout of AM4, which will support 1,555 IT cabinets, according to an announcement issued Tuesday. The total price tag for building Phase One and four future expansion phases is expected to reach $189 million. The facility, which will stand 70 meters tall, will provide space and power for 4,200 cabinets at full build-out.

The Redwood City, California-based data center provider also announced availability of direct network connectivity service to Amazon Web Services from all seven of its Amsterdam data centers. The AWS Direct Connect node will reside in AM3, its existing facility in the Amsterdam Science Park, but customers in the other Equinix facilities in the city will have access to it through Metro Connect, the Equinix network that links all of its sites in the metro area.

The announcement makes Amsterdam the third European market from where Equinix offers direct private access to Amazon’s cloud. Actual AWS cloud data centers in Europe are in Dublin and Frankfurt.

In 2014, following the launch of the Frankfurt site, Equinix announced that all of its German data centers would provide direct connectivity to the facility. Last November, Equinix announced availability of AWS Direct Connect from its London data centers.

In a blockbuster deal that was closed earlier this year, Equinix acquired European data center services giant TelecityGroup for $3.8 billion, becoming the largest data center provider in Europe. Telecity’s portfolio included a data center in the Amsterdam Science Park, but European market regulators required Equinix to sell eight data centers in Europe in exchange for their approval of the merger, and the Science Park facility became one of those eight, sold eventually to Digital Realty.

Read more: Why Equinix Data Center Deal is a Huge Win for Digital Realty

In addition to being a major competitor to Equinix, San Francisco-based Digital is Equinix’s landlord in many markets around the world. As of the end of the first quarter, Equinix, Digital’s third-largest tenant, leased wholesale data center space from the landlord in 14 locations, occupying about 1.7 million square feet total, according to Digital’s report to investors.