Equinix Launches Technically Advanced Data Center in UK, its Sixth in London

LONDON, April 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the global interconnection and data center company, today officially opened its sixth London data center, LD6, in Slough.

With $79M of capital expenditure invested, the LD6 International Business Exchange™ (IBX^®) facility will provide new paths in and out of Europe's largest financial center and new collaboration, innovation and business acceleration opportunities for companies establishing or expanding their technology footprint in London.

Strengthened by recent data center openings in New York, Melbourne, Singapore, Toronto, and now LD6 in London, Equinix is fuelling a new wave of growth for enterprises worldwide. Leveraging Equinix's portfolio of cloud and network service providers, which includes Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud, customers can deploy data networks and services rapidly, and at scale, on a secure and flexible basis. By harnessing these opportunities, Equinix is playing a major role in advancing the digital economy's interconnected era and businesses are benefitting from the global potential to develop new products, services and revenue streams.

Setting new standards in security and efficiency, LD6 is the UK's only purpose built Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) gold-accredited energy efficient data center. Built from scratch, LD6 has been tailored to provide an ultra-energy-efficient base on which customers can accelerate their business.

Energy efficiency has been achieved at the site with the aid of an innovative air system, which utilizes mass air cooling technology with indirect heat exchange and 100 percent natural ventilation. This will contribute to LD6 having lower energy consumption and a smaller carbon footprint than other facilities of its kind.

Highlights / Key Facts

• London holds a significant place in driving the digital economy with the fifth largest GDP by metropolitan area in the world^[1]. Equinix's London Slough data center campus has been established as one of the premiere connectivity points for businesses to interconnect with one another in a secure colocation environment. The opening of LD6 in London is driven by steady demand for services at one of the UK's fastest-growing data center campuses – the Equinix London Slough campus. The facility has broad appeal because it houses LINX, one of the world's largest Internet Exchanges and serves as a virtual financial center housing over 170 financial services companies, with a quarter of European equities trades originating inside Equinix.
• The opening of LD6 continues the steady expansion of Equinix's global interconnection platform – Platform Equinix™. Equinix has invested more than $7.5 billion over the last 16 years and LD6 represents a critical access point for European businesses into Equinix's global footprint of more than 100 data centers across 33 markets.
• The initial phase of LD6 is 236,000 square feet (8,000 square meters) and adds capacity for 1,385 cabinets with the ability to add another 1,385 cabinets in phase two. Once phase two is complete, the Equinix London Slough campus will provide more than 388,000 square feet (36,000 square meters) of net premium colocation space interconnected by more than 1,000 diverse dark fiber links, increasing scale and resilience. This campus environment allows for quick access to other ecosystem participants across facilities. Additionally, with six data center sites strategically located throughout central London, Equinix provides businesses increased options for business continuity and disaster recovery.
• With over 90 network service providers and access to a range of transatlantic cables, the London Slough campus is one of the busiest network nodes in the UK, and offers latency in the region of 30 milliseconds to New York and 4 milliseconds to Frankfurt, making it an ideal high-performance hub for cloud and content service provision.
• Enterprises will have access to major cloud providers located in the London campus via Equinix Cloud Exchange™ including Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud Platform, Available to customers in the London metro area, Cloud Exchange provides enterprises with secure, direct, flexible connections to a wide range of cloud service providers in 20 markets worldwide.
• Colocation inside Equinix IBX's and access to a vast portfolio of cloud and network service providers, allows customers to rapidly deploy IT infrastructure with global scale, on a secure and flexible basis. Businesses are benefitting from the ability to develop new applications, products and services with increased time to market with Platform Equinix.
• LD6 is one of the few Equinix data centers to be built from scratch. This freedom in design and development has enabled Equinix to optimize efficiency from both an environmental and an operational perspective.

Quotes

• Matt Stagg, senior manager, Network Strategy, EE:

"In 2017, 4G will be predominately a video distribution network – globally, a billion gigabytes will go across mobile networks each month. Strategically, we need to have a data center provider, to connect to the top video providers, that understands this growth, and has a roadmap to support it – Equinix meets this need. The launch of LD6 as part of the Equinix London Slough campus brings this roadmap into reality." 

• Julian David, CEO techUK:

"The addition of LD6 to the Equinix London campus is another sign of the growth and opportunity presented by the UK technology sector. The decision by Equinix, and many other global companies, to invest in the UK is further evidence of the crucial role of this country as a hub for technology innovation, services and talent."

• Russell Poole, managing director, Equinix UK:

"LD6 is one of the most technically advanced data centers in the UK. It has been designed to ensure that we can continue to provide state-of-the-art colocation for our current and future customers. This latest addition to our thriving London campus sets new standards in efficiency and sustainability."

Additional Resources

• Equinix Accelerates Interconnected Era with Global Launch of Five New Data Centers [Press release]
• History of Interconnection – part 4 [blog]
• Platform Equinix Drives Business Innovation [video]

About Equinix
Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) connects the world's leading businesses to their customers, employees and partners inside the most interconnected data centers.  In 33 markets worldwide, Equinix is where companies come together to realize new opportunities and accelerate their business, IT and cloud strategies. http://www.equinix.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from expectations discussed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, the challenges of acquiring, operating and constructing IBX centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix services; unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenue from customers in recently built out or acquired data centers; failure to complete any financing arrangements contemplated from time to time; competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business from our key customers; and other risks described from time to time in Equinix's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see Equinix's recent quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available upon request from Equinix. Equinix does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.

[1] "Global city GDP rankings 2008–2025". PricewaterhouseCoopers.

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SOURCE Equinix, Inc.