The first phase of the new facility is due to be completed by Q3 2019, at a cost of $160 million. It will offer an initial capacity of 1,825 cabinets, and once the entire facility is built, will offer 9,225 cabinets of capacity, the largest Australian IBX to date.
“We’re thrilled to continue an exciting period of growth for Equinix globally with the addition of SY5 IBX in Sydney,” said Jeremy Deutsch (pictured), managing director of Equinix Australia. “Sitting on Platform Equinix, SY5 further enables us to offer scalable digital infrastructure and on-demand interconnection both in the local market and across the Asia-Pacific region via a single platform. Local businesses are increasingly functioning at the digital edge with interconnection.”
The move to open a IBX was driven by the high density of carriers, cloud service providers (CSP) and subsea cables in South Sydney. In addition, a recent study from Frost & Sullivan found that enterprises in Australia are highly aware of edge computing architecture. As the Australian market continues to advance year-on-year with growth in cloud computing, big data, IoT applications and analytics software, and with 5G going live this year, Equinix too is expanding its presence in the region.
"The rise in the uptake of technologies such as analytics, IoT, cloud and 5G coming to fruition in Australia are built to leverage digital edge interconnections,” explained Audrey William, senior fellow and head of research, Australia and New Zealand, ICT, Frost & Sullivan. “Customer expectations will be high in terms of immediate availability of services, data and information with low latency. Edge computing architecture represents this next phase of IT transformation, and Equinix is at the forefront of this opportunity."
The SY5 IBX will benefit from direct fibre cross connect capability between the SY1, SY2, SY3 and SY4 IBX data centres with access to over 155 network service providers, 265 cloud and IT service providers, more than 75 financial services companies and over 55 content and digital media organisations. SY5 will be located adjacent to SY4 with direct physical access between the buildings via a secure link bridge, creating a physical campus extension between the sites.
“Following our announcement of new IBX data centres in Singapore and South Korea in January, we are thrilled to announce SY5 in Australia and further our reach across the country. I look forward to seeing Equinix continue to expand in Australia and lead the push towards a digital economy,” said Samuel Lee, president of Equinix Asia-Pacific.
