Waters Rankings 2016: Best Datacenter Provider — Equinix

For datacenter operators, the name of the game is coverage; the best technology offering possible without a wide global reach is simply not an option. Equinix, which focuses entirely on datacenters without providing networking or cloud services, has spent much of the last year furthering its worldwide datacenter services and capabilities, through a dual approach of investing in its internal capacity and via external acquisitions.

Equinix now operates 145 International Business Exchange (IBX) datacenters in 45 global markets and one of its main strengths is the diverse ecosystem of players it has created throughout its datacenter campuses, with representatives trading every asset class across the buy and sell sides, as well as vendors spanning an array of solution types, and market and news data providers. The flexible nature of Equinix’s service means institutional clients are able to shop around among vendors, test out solutions and then choose the best fit without being locked in to a particular provider. 

In response to increased regulatory and compliance pressures on financial services firms, Equinix has set about enhancing its existing facilities over the past year, as it continues to build up its presence in the UK at its Slough campus where development of its LD6 datacenter continues, with plans already being made for an LD7 facility. In July, Equinix announced that it would invest $113 million on the first phase of a new datacenter, AM4, at the Amsterdam Science Park in the Netherlands, one of the most network-dense locations worldwide. AM4 is expected to be in operation by the second quarter of 2017 at a total cost of $189 million.

In January this year, Equinix completed its $3.8 billion acquisition of UK-based counterpart Telecity Group, effectively doubling its European capacity by adding 40 datacenters across seven new markets in Europe—Bulgaria, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Sweden and Turkey—and approximately 1,000 former Telecity clients, including more than 200 network and mobility companies, and more than 300 cloud and IT services providers.

The Telecity deal follows on from last November’s acquisition of Tokyo-based managed datacenter services and connectivity provider Bit-isle for approximately $280 million, completed through Equinix’s Japanese subsidiary and boosting the firm’s number of datacenters in the region to 10. 

In response to increased regulatory and compliance pressures on financial services firms, Equinix has set about enhancing its existing facilities over the past year, as it continues to build up its presence in the UK at its Slough campus where development of its LD6 datacenter continues, with plans already being made for an LD7 facility.