Equinix has opened its latest International Business Exchange (IBX) datacentre in Sydney, known as SY4.
With SY4, Equinix now has five datacentres in Australia, including SY1, SY2 and SY3 in Sydney, and the recently expanded ME1 facility in Melbourne.
Located in Alexandria, Sydney, the new $US97 million facility will support the demand for Platform Equinix in Australia.
Currently, SY4 is already housing more than 20 customers, including Servers Australia, Zettagrid, Connectivity IT, and The Grex Group.
State MP for Davidson, Johnathan O’Dea, said businesses such as Equinix help set Sydney up as a global ICT leader, stressing the importance of connecting businesses to customers and partners.
"Investment in key ICT infrastructure is essential for growing the NSW economy," he said. "Equinix SY4 is one that supplies not just government but a whole range of organisations with infrastructure that will help our economy.
"There’s no doubt that NSW is the ICT capital and we will continue to support growth in the digital economy. The NSW Government is particularly focused on promoting innovation and that is where the future lies in terms of competing on a global stage."
O’Dea said the digital economy is also growing in tandem, with 500,000 jobs forecast to be created in this space over the next 20 years.
By 2020, the digital economy is expected to grow from five per cent to 22 per cent of the country's economy, a rise O'Dea said highlights the importance of facilities such as SY4 to support such growth.
"This space will continue to evolve and the NSW Government is committed to engage and work with industry on a number of levels," he added.
"Businesses like Equinix, with the right skills and people, are essential to the growth that we will see in NSW.”
According to Equinix CEO, Steve Smith, the company is adding capacity to meet growing demand for interconnection and co-location services, particularly as the trends in hybrid and multi-Cloud adoption continue, and as Sydney becomes a digital economy hotspot.
“As the world becomes more interconnected, it requires more of these datacentres all around the world," he added.
"This is a very important market for us because the Australian market innovates as fast as some of the biggest innovators of the world,” he said.
Meanwhile Equinix Australia managing director, Jeremy Deutsch, said the opening of SY4 is Equinix’s response to growing demand from Australian businesses for colocation, hybrid Cloud, and greater interconnection.
"Co-location is now the centre for the new hybrid IT model and Australian enterprises actively looking for the best way to leverage their architectures and capitalise on Cloud services," he added.
"Equinix’s SY4 will enable further opportunities for all of our customers.”
Going forward, Deutsch said SY4 will also be an additional Point of Presence (PoP) for network providers including TPG Telecom and Vocus, and the location of the Australian submarine cable head for Hawaiki, the second trans-Pacific cable route connecting A/NZ to Hawaii and the West Coast of the US.
“We chose Equinix SY4 as the location to place the head end of our cable system for access to the over 140 network service providers and over 225 Cloud and IT providers," Hawaiki CEO, Remi Galasso, added.
“These parties will be able to directly connect to our cable system at Equinix and gain some of the fastest connectivity to international locations, including the US West coast."
