Major Expansion for Equinix in Singapore

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A look at the interior of an Equinix facility in Singapore, where the company has announced plans to build a data center. (Photo: Equinix)

In a period of strong data center growth in Asia, Singapore is the hottest market in the hottest region. Today Equinix announced the latest in  series of major projects in Singapore, teaming with real estate investment trust Mapletree Industrial to build a 385,000 square foot data center that will add capacity for another 5,000 cabinets of servers and IT gear.

Equinix has two existing data centers in Singapore, where the colocation and interconenction provider reports strong demand from financial and cloud companies. The new facility will be adjacent to Equinix’s existing SG1 data center, and will be interconnected through a dedicated fiber network, allowing customers in SG1 to expand their business within the Equinix platform. The build-to-suit project is scheduled to be completed in the second half of 2014.

"Singapore is growing in importance as a cloud hub for the region," said Clement Goh, managing director of Equinix South Asia. "Global and multinational companies have seen Singapore as a gateway for diverse connectivity to the other Asia Pacific markets. Equinix is committed to catering to the increasing demand for data center and interconnection services in Singapore. Our new data center will help our financial and cloud customers drive new business and collaboration opportunities, improve performance and reduce operational cost with low latency and high proximity.”

The new Equinix IBX data center will be a seven-story building situated within one-north, a 200-hectare development by JTC Corporation designed to host a cluster of research facilities and business park space in the biomedical sciences, IT, media, physical sciences and engineering industries. Located in the southwestern region of Singapore, the property is easily accessible via major expressways and the public transportation network.

“We are pleased to work with Equinix as it achieves another milestone with the development of its third IBX data center in Singapore," said Tham Kuo Wei, chief executive officer of Mapletree Industrial Trust (MIT). "The commitment from Equinix demonstrates its confidence in MIT’s development capabilities in customizing high specification industrial facilities. This collaboration allows Equinix to focus on its core business while MIT manages the capital expenditure and development process.”

Industry bellwehthers Equinix and Digital Realty Trust have both actively expanded their space in Singapore. Other companies that have deployed data center space in Singapore over the last two years include Google, Amazon Web Services, IO, IBM, Salesforce.com, SoftLayer and NTT.