"As many leading data center companies aggressively expand their on-the-ground operations in the Asia-Pacific region, Equinix continues to lead the way. The company recently announced that it will be erecting its fifth Tokyo data center. The facility, which will support interconnection services and cloud users in the region, is the data center provider's sixth facility in Japan, and is projected to cost around $43 million to build.
Scheduled to open its doors in the first quarter of 2016, the data center space in the 54,663-square-foot facility will be deployed in two stages. The first phase is expected to make 350 cabinets available, with 375 more to be operable in the second phase. It is also being constructed nearby Equinix's TY3 data center, which will help get the facility up and online quickly.
Globalization, Cloud Adoption Drive Growth
Equinix stated that the main customers for the data center will likely be financial services firms, as well as enterprises expanding their investment in the cloud. The need for rapid interconnection services and close proximity to financial exchange locations have continued to be drivers of data center growth in Japan, where the market for cloud and interconnection solutions is expected to surpass $14 billion by 2016. Kei Furuta, the managing director of Equinix Japan, stated the new facility will serve both the international and domestic requirements of financial services firms and network providers.
""TY5 will be built in response to the various demands being driven by the digital economy across the cloud, mobile and financial services industries,"" Furuta stated. ""As Tokyo is a major international finance center that houses some of the world's largest investment banks, trading platforms and insurance companies, it is important that we provide the necessary interconnection services to meet these increasing demands.""
Equinix's Continued Track Record of Growth
In a recent article by The Wall Street Journal's Drew Fitzgerald, the writer called the company the ""Internet's biggest landlord,"" pointing out that it is difficult to find a company that isn't consuming Equinix's services in one form or another. Its twin model of providing data center space and interconnection services has helped it establish a major presence on the various Internet Exchanges and large-scale enterprise networks around the world, and it has data centers on five continents.
Equinix also recently reached an agreement with Google to deliver the search engine giant's cloud services to a wider swath of companies, as CNBC reported. Equinix chief technology officer Ihab Tarazi noted that the partnership with Google now means that the data center company offers the services of the top three cloud providers (including Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services). Equinix's plan to prioritize working with the major providers of Internet and cloud services is likely to position them well for the long run, according to Fitzgerald, even as more diverse competition arrives at the data center and connectivity arena. With data center space still a hot commodity in critical financial markets, Equinix has the infrastructure in place to continue its successful run."
