Equinix Data Center Expansion Continues With $34M Purchase of Switch Datacenters

As demands for edge services rise, Equinix is doubling down on building or buying new data centers including the recent purchase of Switch Datacenters’ data center business.

Equinix is continuing to expand its worldwide data center footprint with the acquisition of Switch Datacenters’ AMS1 data center business in Amsterdam for $34 million as demand for services at the edge skyrocket.

Over the past few months, Equinix has announced plans to open a slew of new data centers across the globe including in Melbourne, Seoul and Sydney.

“Amsterdam is a key interconnection point for Europe, with leading enterprises and cloud service providers making it a primary hub for IT infrastructure,” said Eugene Bergen, president of EMEA for Equinix, in a statement. “Adding interconnection capacity in this market enables local and international customers to leverage Platform Equinix to meet their changing business needs. Whether that is to connect to networks, clouds, or content and digital media providers, Equinix is the place to be."

[Related: Data Center Spending To Decline In 2019: 5 Reasons Behind The Fall]

With over 200 data centers worldwide in 52 markets, the Redwood City, Calif.-based carrier-neutral interconnection specialist is the largest retail colocation provider in the world. Equinix has a market cap of nearly $38 billion with its stock at $450.39 per share as of Tuesday afternoon.

The new Amsterdam center will help meeting the growing demand for digital infrastructure connectivity both in the Netherlands and the broader European markets as customers continue to build out edge strategies.

The capacity for private data exchange between enterprises and cloud and network service providers is forecast to grow nearly 10 times faster than public internet traffic by 2021, according to Equinix’s Volume 2 of the Global Interconnection Index market report. Private connectivity is essential as digital transformation fuels higher demand for localized services at the edge.

The new data center, which will be renamed Equinix AM11 International Business Exchange (IBX), is close to Equinix’s existing campus in Amsterdam which already hosts four data centers. Equinix said AM11, the company’s eleventh data center in the Netherlands, will be tethered to an existing data center to enable customers to easily interconnect with the world’s largest business ecosystems available on Platform Equinix for collaboration across digital supply chains.

Equinix’s data centers in the Netherlands hosts more than 1,125 companies including telecommunications carriers, ISPs, global submarine cable networks and international enterprise.

AM11 already houses a mix customer base including networks, cloud service providers and content and digital media companies with a total capacity for nearly 1,000 cabinets once the facility is complete. Equinix said the site could also expand into an adjacent building to accommodate an additional 1,300 cabinets.

Equinix’s acquisition of Switch Datacenters’ AMS1 data center business was completed on April 18.