Equinix is set to invest an estimated US$77 million to expand two of its international business exchange (IBX) data centres in Hong Kong.
Once complete, the provider will have distributed facilities across the Western, Eastern and Northern parts of Hong Kong, supporting the digital edge and business continuity strategies of enterprises.
“Hong Kong is a key gateway to mainland China and home to many headquarters of global corporations,” said Larry Tam, managing director of Equinix Hong Kong. “This generates substantial demand for secure data centre services to support business expansion in the region.
"By establishing distributed digital edge control points within Equinix colocation data centres, companies which are focused on growth can accelerate and scale their digital transformation, integrate and control business processes, and better fortify their digital assets with a high-speed and low-latency interconnection."
The investment will go towards the expansion of the provider’s HK2 and HK4 IBX data centres, which is set to provide a total of 1,500 cabinets of capacity when completed.
While the HK2 expansion was completed in March 2019, the HK4 expansion is not expected to be finalised until the third quarter of 2019.
An additional colocation area of nearly 4,800 square metres - equivalent to approximately 51,400 square feet - is expected to be added upon completion of the planned expansion.
The expansion of the HK4 data centre, located in the Sha Tin District of Hong Kong, will cost an estimated US$34 million, and is part of the provider’s phase 2 expansion of this particular data centre, which includes 500 cabinets of capacity and approximately 1,500 square metres (equivalent to more than 16,000 square feet) of colocation space.
On the other hand, the investment in the expansion of the HK2 data centre will cost an estimated US$43 million, and is part of the locations phase 5 expansion, which will see 1,000 cabinets of capacity and approximately 3,300 square metres (approximately 35,400 square feet) of colocation space. This will make this location Equinix’s largest IBX facility in Hong Kong.
In all, Equinix will have a total colocation space of about 31,300 square metres (equivalent to approximately 323,400 square feet), spread across five data centres in Kong Kong, and increase of 17 per cent before the expansion.
The data centres are business hubs for more than 505 companies. Customers will now be able to interconnect directly with other customers and partners in their digital supply chain, including a dense concentration of more than 80 networks, more than 125 cloud and IT service providers, and over 140 financial services.
Furthermore, the robust network infrastructure, reliable energy supply, safety from natural disasters and geographical proximity to mainland China continue to drive demand for data centres in Hong Kong.
In addition, the city’s thriving financial services industry is increasingly demanding data centre services due to stringent industry requirements around security and resilience.
In Singapore, the provider has invested US85 million in a new forth data centre, dubbed SG4, which is during to become operation in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Specifically, the new seven-story facility will offer an initial capacity of 1,400 cabinets in the first phase, accommodating for more than 4,000 cabinets upon completion.
