Equinix Connects Melbourne with New International Business Exchange Data Center

New facility meets high demand for world-class data center services, providing direct access to global cloud, network and content providers

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Equinix, Inc.

Mar 23, 2015, 08:00 ET

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. and MELBOURNE, Australia, March 24, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the global interconnection and data center company, today announced that its first International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) in Melbourne is fully operational. This newest data center, called ME1, supports the strong demand for a premium data center facility in the Melbourne metropolitan area.

Highlights / Key Facts

Equinix's new Melbourne data center, ME1, meets high demand for world-class data center services, providing direct access to global cloud, network and content providers.

In a recent survey, Dimensional Research found that 85 percent of Australian enterprises are planning to deploy to multiple clouds within the next 12 months, 77 percent of which will use clouds operating in more than one country¹. The opening of ME1 addresses this high demand for cloud services in Australia and allows businesses to leverage Equinix's network, content and cloud business ecosystems to rapidly accelerate the benefits of their cloud strategies.
The opening of ME1 will further extend Platform Equinix™ to meet strong demand for premium interconnection and data center services in Melbourne and the region. This expansion is in line with the steady growth of the company's leading global interconnection platform, in which Equinix has invested more than US$7.5 billion over the last 15 years.
With an initial investment of $60M², which includes the cost of the land, the ME1 data center opens with 375 cabinets, with future expansion phases accommodating an additional 1,125 cabinets and a total of over 105,000 square feet of floor space. The facility is Equinix's fourth data center in Australia, adding to the three facilities already operating in Sydney. This dual Sydney/Melbourne market presence further ensures high-performance, network reliability, redundancy, and low-latency.
The ME1 IBX data center enables Melbourne businesses to connect with Equinix's network-dense ecosystem of more than 1,000 networks globally, 130 of which are available in Australia. It provides customers with access to a large marketplace of over 4,800 potential customers and partners across more than 100 data centers worldwide, generating revenue opportunities and reducing time-to-market.
ME1 opens with more than 40 new customers deployed, reflecting the strong demand for Equinix's data center and interconnection services. Customers include Bulletproof, CacheFly, Entrust ICT, Exigent, First Path, GCOMM, Micron21 Telecommunications, Telstra, Vocus, and Western Australian Internet Association (WAIA).
Cloud and IT service providers account for a quarter of Equinix's business and are the fastest growing segment for the company. By housing IT infrastructure in ME1, businesses are able to expand their cloud and data capabilities rapidly as data consumption and content volume continue to increase.
ME1 meets the LEED^® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System^™, a framework developed by the U.S. Green Building Council for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions. ME1 includes evaporative coolers to support low power usage effectiveness (PUE).
ME1 is one of five new IBX data centers being opened by Equinix in early 2015. Other locations include Singapore, London, Toronto and New York. Through these expansions, Equinix is playing a major role in advancing the digital economy's interconnected era, in which businesses are demanding increasing levels of interconnection to accelerate business performance.

Quotes

The Hon. Paul Fletcher MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Communications:
"I congratulate Equinix on expanding their operations to Melbourne, and for their continuing investment in Australia. In the modern digital economy data centers are vital pieces of infrastructure, and this expansion is very much to be welcomed. ME1 is an impressive facility which will offer new opportunities for companies to interconnect and in turn help to enrich Australia's digital economy."
James Braunegg, managing director, Micron21 Telecommunications:
"We extended our dark fiber network into ME1 as it offers Micron21 the ability to provide cost effective interconnections with just about any network provider, cloud service or company we choose to, should we need to. Equinix's vast interconnection capability made ME1 the obvious choice. It's great to see this capability now available in Melbourne. We are very much looking forward to growing our services within ME1 and supporting the Equinix ecosystem."
Jeremy Deutsch, managing director, Equinix Australia:
"By opening ME1, our first International Business Exchange in Melbourne, this city's businesses can now choose more than just state-of-the-art carrier-neutral colocation space and carrier-dense interconnections. ME1 provides our customers with access to Platform Equinix, where major networks, enterprises and business partners interconnect to each other at global scale."

Additional Resources – Previous Case Studies and Files + New Media Kit

Press release: ME1 Sees Strong Momentum at First Melbourne Data Center
Press release: Cloud365 Selects Equinix Data Center in Melbourne to Manage Expanding Cloud Demand in Australia
Press release: National Voice Data Prepares for Cloud Growth by Expanding
Press release: Telstra Continues Data Center Support with Equinix in Sydney and Melbourne
ME1 Media Kit

About Equinix
Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) connects the world's leading businesses to their customers, employees and partners inside the most interconnected data centers. In 33 markets across five continents, Equinix is where companies come together to realize new opportunities and accelerate their business, IT and cloud strategies. 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 centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix services; unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenue 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; and other risks described from time to time in Equinix's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see Equinix's recent quarterly and annual report s 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.

Equinix and IBX are registered trademarks of Equinix, Inc.
International Business Exchange is a trademark of Equinix, Inc.

¹ Cloud Adoption Study: Australia² AU$66M as at 13 Jan 2014

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SOURCE Equinix, Inc.