Equinix has outlined its progress in developing the 'xScale' data centre market, serving large online cloud platforms. In the past two months it has opened xScale sites in Tokyo, London and Paris, and the first xScale data centre in Latin America will open in Sao Paulo.
Equinix has devoted USD 3 billion to developing the new sites targeting hyperscale cloud providers. The global expansion is financed in part through joint ventures with partners.
The company's first xScale centre in Asia opened in Tokyo on 01 March. This met with early success, with an anchor tenant committed to the full phase one capacity and a significant portion of phase two. When completed, the TY12x site will provide about 17,300 m2 of colocation space and 54 MW of power.
A second site is planned to open in Osaka in Q4, and Equinix also anticipates developing one additional xScale data centre in Japan in the future. The three sites should deliver together around 138 MW of power. A joint venture was agreed last year with GIC on developing the Japanese market.
A similar agreement was struck with GIC in 2019 on developing hyperscale sites in Europe. Equinix opened its second xScale site in Paris last month. This is fully leased by a single hyperscale tenant and will have 2,750 m2 of space and 10 MW of power when fully completed.
In total, six xScale facilities are currently operating or are under development in Europe, for total power of 106 MW. This includes the two Paris sites, the LD11x and LD13x sites already in operation in London, and Frankfurt's FR9x which is expected to open in Q4 and FR11x planned for Q2 2022.
Finally, Equinix plans to open its first xScale data centre in Latin America in Q3. SP5x in Sao Paulo will be connected by optical fibre to the existing four Equinix Sao Paulo data centres and support 5 MW of power to hyperscale customers in its first phase.
