Equinix, Inc. has announced that its fifth International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) in Dallas is fully operational. The newest data center, called DA6, will support growing demand for Platform Equinix™ in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area, one of Equinix's most network-dense locations.

"In the early days of the Internet's infrastructure, Equinix saw the potential for Dallas to be a major Internet and network peering exchange point. We have invested significantly in the region and, as a result, we now operate the largest Internet exchange in the south central United States, and furthermore, offer excellent interconnection options for some of the largest global enterprises that depend on fast connections to customers and partners to meet their business needs," said Karl Strohmeyer, president, Americas Equinix.

Equinix's Dallas data centers house over 100 network service providers — more than any other data center providers or buildings in the Dallas metro area, providing network choice and connectivity for 40+ cloud service providers and 30 content and digital media companies including: AT&T, Level 3 Communications, Adobe, AOL, Comcast, China Telecom, Sprint, Time Warner Cable, and Walmart.

Equinix invested over $34 million in the first phase of the DA6 data center which includes space, power, and cooling for 450 cabinets. Future expansion phases of DA6 will accommodate 900 additional cabinets for a total of over 82,000 sq ft of usable colocation space. With the addition of DA6 at full build, Equinix's total Dallas footprint will exceed 230,000 sq ft dispersed over five data centers.

Four of Equinix's five Dallas data centers are located within the Dallas Infomart, a 1.6M sq ft building with multiple diverse fiber entry points into the building. Equinix, the largest colocation tenant in the Infomart, has the only private freight elevator in Infomart, greatly easing customer equipment moves.

Equinix's first data center in Dallas was built in 2000 and was Equinix's fourth IBX data center constructed and played an important role in establishing the U.S. Internet infrastructure. As a result, the Dallas-Fort Worth region has long been a major Internet and network peering exchange point and international connectivity point for internet traffic coming to and from the U.S. and Latin America, making it a strategic location for companies looking to expand into that region.

The Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area is home to 18 of the Fortune 500, and has over 3,000 medium to large businesses and is an important U.S. and global economic center. Equinix's Dallas data centers serve a high concentration of telecommunications companies and are a major communications hub for the southern United States.

In a recent report[1], MarketsandMarkets predicted that the colocation market will grow from $25.72 billion in 2013 to $43.34 billion by 2018, at a CAGR of 11.0% from 2013 to 2018. As such, colocation providers including Equinix are continuing to build out new capacity in anticipation of the steady demand.

Equinix is now comprised of 100 data centers globally in 32 markets across 15 countries in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific. By locating in an Equinix IBX data center, companies gain access to business ecosystems for the cloud, content, financial, mobile, and networking industries. Customers significantly lower costs, improve application performance and simplify their data center deployments.