Equinix Launches Large Expansion of Interconnection Services in EMEA to Help Enterprises Simplify Hybrid Multicloud Connectivity

LONDON – April 28, 2020 – Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the global interconnection and data centre company, today announced one of its largest expansions of Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric™ (ECX Fabric™) in seven new EMEA markets to help global businesses simplify hybrid and multicloud infrastructures. With this expansion of Equinix’s industry-leading interconnection service to Barcelona, Brussels, Geneva, Istanbul, Lisbon and Sofia, and extending into Hamburg in Q2 2020, enterprises and service providers can seamlessly interconnect to a rich ecosystem of clouds, networks, partners and customers that matter most to their digital businesses.

As global IT decision-makers respond to an increasingly dynamic world including competitive pressures, growing customer demands, globalisation, and challenges posed by COVID-19, many are accelerating their digital transformation efforts and continuing to prioritise the adoption of hybrid and multicloud solutions. In response to this market shift, Equinix is extending its ECX Fabric service in EMEA to help digital businesses simplify hybrid multicloud deployments and expand their global interconnection opportunities on Platform Equinix®.

Designed to support enterprise digital transformation initiatives, ECX Fabric is a global interconnection service available in 45 strategic markets that allows businesses to exchange their data on demand, and between metros through private connections. This capability enables enterprises, network services and cloud providers alike to consistently scale their digital businesses just as rapidly as the digital economy requires it.

ECX Fabric provides scalability, agility and connectivity over a self-service portal or APIs. Through a single port, customers in any ECX Fabric-enabled market can create and manage on-demand connections in a globally consistent way. By extending ECX Fabric from Lisbon in the West to Istanbul in the East, Equinix is making it easier for digital businesses to increase their global reach by gaining broad access to the ecosystems they need for scaling their businesses globally.

Highlights/Key Facts

• As digital transformation fuels the need for virtualised, on-demand, multicloud infrastructures, global businesses are using virtual connections to expand into new regions. ECX Fabric supports this evolution to multicloud adoption by directly, securely and dynamically connecting distributed infrastructure and digital ecosystems globally, on Platform Equinix.
• Platform Equinix is a dynamic data centre and interconnection platform essential for any enterprise deploying hybrid multicloud at the edge. With a global footprint of more than 200 International Business Exchange™ (IBX^®) data centres, Platform Equinix contains a very high share of the world’s public cloud on-ramps and the most physically and virtually interconnected ecosystems in the world.
• ECX Fabric enables streamlined access to the world's largest cloud providers, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Google Cloud on Platform Equinix via global, software-defined interconnection. With more than 2,000 customers connecting their digital infrastructure to more than 600 other participants on the platform, ECX Fabric enables the world's leading digital businesses to connect to the cloud.
• With the addition of the seven new EMEA markets, ECX Fabric will be available to customers across 45 strategic markets in the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions including Amsterdam, Atlanta, Barcelona, Boston, Brussels, Canberra, Chicago, Culpeper, Dallas, Denver, Dublin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hamburg, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Houston, Istanbul, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Manchester, Melbourne, Miami, Milan, Munich, New York, Osaka, Paris, Perth, Seattle, São Paulo, Silicon Valley, Seoul, Singapore, Sofia, Stockholm, Sydney, Toronto, Tokyo, Warsaw, Washington D.C. and Zurich.
• Benefits to enterprises: On-demand, software-defined interconnection on ECX Fabric gives enterprises the agility to capitalise on changing market conditions and new opportunities. Through one port, on one platform, enterprises can quickly connect to the largest ecosystems of clouds, networks and partners available on ECX Fabric, including clouds not currently available for direct connection within a local market. By connecting local services and distributed infrastructure via ECX Fabric, enterprises can also solve their application performance and digital customer experience challenges. Additionally, ECX Fabric, along with a growing portfolio of Edge Services, offers enterprises the ability to quickly deploy and interconnect virtual network functions globally.
• Benefits to service providers: By leveraging ECX Fabric as a global extension of their infrastructure, cloud and network service providers can quickly expand their global reach into new markets and respond to the connectivity needs of their customers with dramatically reduced time to market. The virtualised nature of these connections is also ideal for testing local market demand before deploying physical infrastructure. The rich ecosystem of cloud service providers available on Platform Equinix also allows network providers to offer customers on-demand, private connectivity to multiple cloud providers via ECX Fabric, ultimately helping their customers extract more value from the cloud.
• Private interconnection is essential as digital transformation fuels higher demand for localised digital services at the edge. According to the recently released Volume 3 of the Global Interconnection Index (GXI), a market study published by Equinix, installed interconnection bandwidth capacity is expected to reach 13,300+ Tbps with a 51% compound annual growth rate worldwide by 2022.

Quotes

• Armin Rishi, Director of Technical Partnerships, Aryaka

“Platform Equinix’s global interconnection capabilities help Aryaka, the cloud-first WAN company, with our peering and cloud connectivity needs. This enables us to provide an industry-leading Managed SD-WAN service to our customers. Seeing the expansion across several European markets opens up more possibilities for the future growth of our platform.”

• Courtney Munroe, Global Vice President, Telecommunications Research, IDC

"The migration to digital platforms, as well as the requirement for seamless and efficient interconnection to network providers and cloud platforms, are strong drivers for the colocation and interconnection market for enterprises, content and service providers. Equinix’s ECX Fabric interconnection service offers additional enhanced and efficient options for service providers and enterprises alike and will continue to drive growth of the digital ecosystem. This expansion is timely given the increased demand for interconnection as a result of shifting network patterns and the spike in network usage from some segments, due to the impact of COVID-19 quarantine policies.”

• Bill Long, Senior Vice President, Core Product Management, Equinix

“As global IT decision-makers respond to the challenges posed by COVID-19, many are accelerating their digital transformation efforts and transitioning more functions to the cloud. To help global businesses simplify their hybrid and multicloud deployments, Equinix is launching the largest expansion to date of our ECX Fabric service in Europe. By extending ECX Fabric from Lisbon in the West to Istanbul in the East, and offering a globally consistent interconnection service across each of our 45 ECX Fabric-enabled markets, we can help enterprises seamlessly connect to the clouds, networks, partners and rich ecosystems that matter most to their businesses.”

• Eugene Bergen Henegouwen, President, EMEA, Equinix

“Most of the organisations we work with around the world are already on a digital transformation journey, and are using the cloud to improve their global reach and seamlessly connect with the customers, partners and suppliers that matter to them. Indeed, in our latest global survey of IT decision-makers, nearly three-quarters (71%) said they plan to move more of their IT functions to the cloud. COVID-19 has accelerated this trend for some businesses that have had to rapidly virtualise their services to respond to the extremely fast-changing nature of business during this crisis. We believe our expansion of ECX Fabric will help them to not only successfully navigate the difficult months ahead, but come out the other side fit for the future and ready to seize the opportunities the cloud offers.”

• Russell Poole, Managing Director, UK, Equinix

“There is a significant worldwide shift to the cloud underway that is transforming how businesses operate. Our recent tech trends survey revealed 68% of IT decision-makers in the UK are planning to move more of their business-critical functions to the cloud, with 59% intending to do so in the next 12 months. It also identified a push for more multicloud deployments, with 36% of IT leaders saying the move to multicloud is a key aspect of their enterprise’s IT strategy. The expansion of ECX Fabric into these key metros will support this trend, offering flexibility and scalability to companies looking to expand their cloud adoption in a secure and cost-effective manner.”

Additional Resources

• Equinix Is Expanding the Reach of Cloud in EMEA [blog]
• Learn more about ECX Fabric [website]
• Learn more about Platform Equinix [website]
• Learn more about Edge Services [website]
• Multicloud and Edge Top IT Leaders’ Priority Lists [press release]
• Equinix 2019-20 Tech Trends Survey [report]

• Global Interconnection Index Volume 3 [report] 
• IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Colocation and Interconnection Services 2019 – 2020 [report]
• Equinix’s Response to COVID-19 [website]

About Equinix
Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) connects the world's leading businesses to their customers, employees and partners inside the most-interconnected data centres. On this global platform for digital business, companies come together across more than 50 markets on five continents to reach everywhere, interconnect everyone and integrate everything they need to create their digital futures. 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 data centres 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 centres; a 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 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.