Data Center Star Equinix Is On Fire Thanks To xScale
Equinix is pouring $3 billion into building custom data centers across the globe to win over hyperscale companies like AWS, Google and Microsoft.
Equinix is striving to become the global leader in hyperscale data centers as it continues to pour billions into its bullish xScale data center program that takes aim at the largest data center spenders such as AWS, Microsoft and Google. Equinix is building faster than ever before with revenue climbing to $6 billion in 2020.
The Redwood City, Calif.-based colocation and interconnection giant is investing a whopping $3 billion in building new types of data centers across the globe to support the rising demands of the world’s largest cloud service providers that need to scale rapidly. Equinix xScale data centers serve the unique core workload deployment needs of hyperscale companies including Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure — all Equinix customers.
This month, Equinix opened its first xScale data center in Tokyo that will support 54 megawatts of power to hyperscale customers, marking the company’s xScale entrance in Asia. Equinix is currently building another xScale data center in Osaka, Japan with expectations to open later this year.
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In February, Equinix opened its second xScale data center in Paris, which is already fully leased by a single hyperscale tenant. The new data center is a major win for Equinix as it’s a strategic hub for the exchange of traffic between the U.S. and Europe as well as a termination point for many submarine cable systems in the Mediterranean.
A total of six xScale data centers are currently operating or are under development in Europe — including in hot markets like London and Frankfurt — that will have capacity to deliver over 100 megawatts of power to hyperscale customers in Europe once all become operational.
Later this year, Equinix expects to open its first xScale data center in Latin America in Sao Paulo, Brazil, which will connect by optical fiber to four currently existing Equinix centers in Sao Paulo.
“Equinix xScale facilities offer hyperscale companies the unique value of Platform Equinix, including access to business ecosystems, interconnection services and local market knowledge around the world,” said Krupal Raval, managing director of xScale for Equinix in a statement. “Our xScale data centers are engineered to meet the technical, operational, and pricing requirements of hyperscale companies that require large amounts of space and power to support massive scaling across thousands of servers for cloud, big data analytics or storage tasks, with 10, 20, or even 50 megawatts of power, all while meeting Equinix‘s sustainability commitments.”
In 2020, Equinix generated $6 billion in revenue, representing an 8 percent annual sales increase. The company expects revenues to reach upwards of $6.64 billion in 2021, which would be a 10 percent increase year over year.
As hyperscale companies like AWS, Google and Microsoft continue to expand, they require capacity at scale to match their internal compute, storage and edge cache requirements. With xScale data centers, hyperscale companies can add core deployments to their existing access point footprints at Equinix, enabling their growth on a single platform that can span 63 global metros and offer direct interconnection to customers and business partners.
The global COVID-19 pandemic spurred a record-breaking third quarter 2020 as data center spending reached $37 billion, led by AWS, Google and Microsoft. Companies like AWS, Google and Microsoft don’t build every single data center by themselves, typically leasing capacity and space from data center operations like Equinix. The two dominant colocation global market leaders are Equinix and Digital Realty.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, most Equinix data centers across the globe were deemed essential businesses or critical infrastructure by governments and have remained operationally throughout the past year.
Equinix is also investing in non-xScale data centers as well.
Just this week, Equinix opened the first carrier-neutral data center in Bordeaux, France. Equinix’s new data center will provide a landing hub for a new submarine cable, dubbed Amitie, that will link France to the U.S. and Great Britain, creating a new European gateway for data traffic between the U.S. and Europe.
Equinix is opening its first data center in Bordeaux, France, in Q3 2021. The new facility—BX1—will be a true connectivity hub, offering customers secure and resilient colo and interconnection services, and connectivity to comprehensive digital ecosystems https://t.co/QxgBiWWF3y
— Charles Meyers (@CharlesMeyers) March 4, 2021
Equinix currently has more than 220 data centers across five continents. The company’s flagship Platform Equinix offering enables companies to quickly and easily connect to the world’s business markets, including financial centers and gateways to emerging economies.