Equinix, Inc. has announced it plans to invest over $97M to build a large-scale data center in Sydney. This new International Business Exchange (IBX®) data center, to be called SY4, will address the growing demand for premium data center services in Australia. SY4 will be Equinix's fourth data center in Sydney, and its fifth in Australia; taking the company's total investment in Australia close to $360M.

"SY4 shows our ongoing commitment in the Sydneymarket and will enable our Australian customers to continue to take advantage of innovations including hybrid cloud architectures and the Equinix Cloud Exchange. The new facility will ensure that we continue to deliver on our promise to help businesses safeguard their mission-critical data, aid growth and rapid scalable deployment through our global footprint, and with the highest levels of security and operational reliability," said Jeremy Deutsch, managing director, Equinix Australia. 

According to the Frost & Sullivan Australian Data Centre Services Market 2014 report¹, the Australian data center services market is estimated to grow to AUD$1.7B by 2020. Australia's data center services market recorded AUD$698M in revenues for 2013 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 13.9% to 2020. Equinix is meeting demand for premium data center services in Australia, with the recent opening of ME1 in Melbourne, and this new, additional investment in Sydney.

"Sydneyis Australia'sleading business center and capital of Australia'stop State economy. It is the first choice for many local and international businesses wanting to grow in our dynamic State. The NSW Government has worked with Equinix to support the company's growth in Sydneyand we welcome the company's latest investment which will help to ensure that New South Walesbusinesses have the opportunity to leverage world-class interconnection services. These services assist in unlocking new revenue opportunities and drive growth in our digital economy. Our information and communication technology and digital/creative strengths will be on show next month at CeBIT Australia 2015 in Sydney," said The Hon. Stuart Ayres, MP, New South Walesminister for trade, tourism and major events.

Located in Alexandria, just south of Sydney's CBD and in close proximity to the Equinix SY1/2 and 3 campus, SY4 will provide a total of 3,000 cabinets of capacity at full build, with the first phase of 1,500 cabinets scheduled for completion in Q2 2016. The 135,000-sq-ft facility will help businesses safeguard mission-critical data with the highest levels of security and operational reliability.

Demand for premium data centers services has been led by Australia's early adoption of the hybrid cloud model. In a recent survey, Dimensional Research found that 85% of Australian enterprises are planning to deploy to multiple clouds within the next 12 months, with 83% of enterprises indicating that direct connects to cloud providers are highly valued². The investment in SY4 is meeting this demand with the Equinix Cloud Exchange offering businesses secure, low-latency and high-performance direct connections with public and private cloud providers.

The IBX data centers at the Equinix Sydney campus are home to an increasing number of large enterprises, as well as robust business ecosystems for cloud, mobility, content, and financial services. With Equinix's three Sydney data centers in close proximity, SY4 will be able to interconnect with the existing facilities via a dense dedicated fiber loop. This enables SY4 customers to leverage Equinix's vibrant Australian ecosystems and interconnect with 600+ existing Equinix customers, 250+ cloud providers and 130+ networks.

The new SY4 phased build is one of many in Equinix's growing global platform – Platform Equinix™ – which consists of more than 100 data centers in 33 markets. Earlier this year Equinix announced that it is boosting interconnection capacity with five new data centers in London, Melbourne, New York, Singapore and Toronto.