Equinix extends digital edge with Perth data centre

The US$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.

Highlights / Key Facts

·       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%.

·       With a third subsea cable being built that will connect Australia to Oman, Perth is evolving as the country’s second digital gateway to international markets. The availability of high-speed connectivity of subsea cables in Perth drives demand from global cloud, network and over-the-top (OTT) providers, as well as continued growth from government, mining and resource sectors. It also provides companies that currently enter Australia via Sydney with a second path for redundancy as well as a faster route to Asia and the world.

·       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 first phase of the Perth facility will offer an initial capacity of 650 cabinets and a colocation space of more than 1,830 square meters (approximately 38,600 square feet). When fully built, the facility will offer 1,650 cabinets and a colocation space of more than 10,600 square meters (approximately 114,200 square feet).

·       The PE3 IBX will provide a wide range of interconnection solutions, including Equinix Fabric^TM—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.

·       The Global Interconnection Index Volume 4 (GXI Vol. 4), recently published by Equinix, found that traditional businesses are moving workloads to an edge-first architecture, and that COVID-19 is accelerating digital transformation in Asia-Pacific. Traditional business in Asia-Pacific, within industries like banking & insurance, securities & trading, manufacturing and business & professional services, is forecast to represent more than 25% of global private connectivity bandwidth by 2023. This is led by the growing need to move workloads to the digital edge while scaling core IT infrastructure, and reinforces the importance of Perth as a gateway to international markets. By 2023, these traditional businesses are expected to reach a peak interconnection bandwidth growth rate of over 50% annually.