Equinix, Inc., the world’s digital infrastructure company, announced it is expanding Platform Equinix® with a third International Business ExchangeTM (IBX®) data center in Perth. To be named PE3, it will be the company’s 18th data center in Australia, enabling Equinix to meet growing demand for digital infrastructure and low-latency networking capabilities in Western Australia among global and local organizations
The U.S$54 million (approximately A$76.6 million) first phase of PE3 is targeted to open in Q4 2021. When it opens, the new facility will provide access to more than 1,045 companies, including 215 networks and 395 cloud providers, who utilize Platform Equinix in Australia to address the rising demand from digital leaders who want all the necessary digital infrastructure building blocks on one platform.
Perth is increasingly becoming a strategic part of Australia’s internet infrastructure due to its proximity to Southeast Asia and direct connectivity via two subsea cable links, the Australia Singapore Cable (ASC) and Indigo Cable. Both cables terminate directly inside the Equinix Perth campus, reducing the time it takes for data to move between Singapore and Australia by 50%.
In March 2020, the Australian and Singapore governments signed the Australia-Singapore Digital Economy Agreement to promote digital trade between the two countries, putting Perth in a position to be a part of the next wave of data center expansion, with direct connectivity to Asia and global markets. The PE3 IBX will be located adjacent to the PE2 IBX, approximately 13 miles (22 kilometers) from the Perth Airport, with a planned secure link bridge connecting the two facilities.
The PE3 IBX will provide a wide range of interconnection solutions, including Equinix FabricTM—formerly Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric. Equinix Fabric is an on-demand, SDN-enabled interconnection service that allows any business to connect between its own distributed infrastructure and any other company’s distributed infrastructure, including some of the world’s largest network service and cloud providers on Platform Equinix. Through Equinix Fabric, customers in Perth can set up direct connectivity with international and local cloud service providers across Australia, such as Alibaba, AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud, SAP Cloud and SoftLayer, as well as major network service providers, such as Telstra, Optus and Vocus.
Equinix’s global platform currently includes more than 220 data centers across 63 metros. In Asia-Pacific, Equinix’s data center footprint spans across key metros in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Singapore.
