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Nov 23, 2022
LONDON, UK – November 23, 2022 — Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the world’s digital infrastructure company, today confirmed its continuing commitment to growing its data centre capacity in the UK. It is expanding two of its International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) sites in London—LD7 and LD8—and has opened a new data centre—MA5—in Manchester, representing an investment of £179 million. In total, Equinix has invested more than £1 billion in the UK’s digital infrastructure.
In an increasingly dynamic world, including competitive pressures, growing customer demands, globalisation, and challenges posed by COVID-19 and Brexit, many businesses are accelerating their digital transformation efforts and prioritising the adoption of hybrid multicloud solutions. In response, Equinix continues to invest in the UK’s interconnection capabilities to help organisations adopt future-proof digital strategies and expand their global opportunities.
Russell Poole, Managing Director for Equinix UK, said: “Our commitment to expanding the UK’s digital infrastructure caters to the increasing number of enterprises requiring ultra-low-latency connectivity, both here and internationally. This further investment will help to maintain the nation’s position as a strategic digital business hub for enterprises looking to compete on a global scale.
“The location of these data centres complements the growth of the UK’s two biggest cities. Manchester is one of Europe's fastest growing business centres for technology and media, while London is a long-established financial centre of the world. Despite Brexit-born uncertainty, there are many reasons to be optimistic about digital transformation and technology investment in the UK.”
The Global Interconnection Index (GXI) 2023, a market study published by Equinix, forecasts that, in London, overall interconnection bandwidth—the measure of private connectivity for the transfer of data between organisations—is expected to achieve a 43% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) by 2025, as the fastest growing core metro. This projected growth is due to be driven by a combination of network and financial services demand for capacity.
Furthermore, the Equinix 2022 Global Tech Trends Survey reveals the majority of UK digital leaders (64%) believe the UK is a trailblazer in technological innovation, with 57% of last year’s respondents suggesting that, globally, London is one of the best cities to do business in. Almost 8 out of 10 (79%) respondents expect the UK will remain a world-leading international business hub.
As well as underpinning the UK’s position as a hub for global business, data centres are delivering multiple career opportunities, including roles that coincide with Equinix’s own initiatives to attract new talent and tackle gender inequality within the tech sector. One such programme, recently launched and titled ‘I am Remarkable’, is encouraging women to join the industry. It is particularly focused on women who have no previous experience working in technology.
Lorraine Wilkinson, Vice President of Sales, UK, at Equinix, said: “We are hoping to attract more female talent into the industry. We know through anecdotal feedback that many candidates can be put off applying for tech roles as they believe they don’t have the right skillset. Our initiative helps women recognise that, although they may lack technical training, they hold many extremely valuable and transferable skills that make them ideal employees.
“Today, less than a quarter of IT and tech roles are filled by women, with any meaningful progress to address the imbalance being frustratingly slow. At Equinix, we recognise the value women bring to our workplace, and are working hard to address the gender imbalance.”
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Katie Gallagher, Managing Director, Manchester Digital: “This investment into the tech infrastructure in the North West region is hugely welcome. We continue to see consistent growth within the Greater Manchester region for tech and digital start-ups, established companies setting up here, as well as the Government moving departments up north, so all investment into digital infrastructure is much-needed. The pandemic has accelerated digital transformation for many businesses, and this will continue for some years. We’re thrilled to work alongside Equinix and support them as they continue to grow as a business.”
Yannick Leboyer, COO, Zayo Europe: "Zayo has been aggressively investing in the Manchester metro and we saw Equinix opening MA5 as great evidence in the market potential of Manchester. We are looking forward to partnering with Equinix and its customers to provide connectivity into this new facility to the rest of the UK, Europe and USA."
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Additional Resources
About Equinix
Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) is the world’s digital infrastructure company. Digital leaders harness Equinix’s trusted platform to bring together and interconnect foundational infrastructure at software speed. Equinix enables organizations to access all the right places, partners and possibilities to scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences and multiply their value, while supporting their sustainability goals.
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, risks to our business and operating results related to the COVID-19 pandemic; the current inflationary environment; foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; increased costs to procure power and the general volatility in the global energy market; the challenges of acquiring, operating and constructing IBX and xScale data centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix products and solutions; unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenues 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; risks related to our taxation as a REIT and other risks described from time to time in Equinix filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see recent and upcoming Equinix 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.
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