New Equinix Data Center Opens in Melbourne, Australia - a World Leading Smart City

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. and MELBOURNE, Australia, Feb. 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the global interconnection and data center company, today announced the opening of its fourth International Business Exchange(TM) (IBX(®)) data center in Melbourne, Australia. Known as ME2, the new facility supports the growing demand for digital transformation globally, as well as Melbourne's smart city development and the interconnection needs of local customers, including The Salvation Army.

Digital innovation is transforming the ability of today's businesses to extend market reach, respond flexibly to new customer requirements and deploy the controls needed for security and compliance. The complexity behind the evolving digital economy requires businesses to extend network infrastructure to the edge to be in close proximity to their customers and partners for secure data exchange and seamless digital experiences. This added data center and interconnection capacity in Melbourne will help with those initiatives while also advancing Melbourne's smart city innovation. Melbourne was recently recognized as the world's sixth most advanced smart city, according to a recent report from Oracle and ESI ThoughtLab.(1)

The ME2 IBX is located in Melbourne's Fishermans Bend region, Australia's largest urban renewal project, which is forecast to be home to approximately 80,000 residents and provide employment for up to 80,000 people by 2050.(2) Companies operating at the ME2 IBX can leverage the ecosystem of approximately 10,000 businesses currently operating on Platform Equinix(®) globally. The facility is expected to play a key role in supporting Melbourne's smart city development.

Highlights / Key Facts

    --  The ME2 IBX is a US$77.5 million (approximately A$116 million) facility
        that includes more than 29,300 square feet (2,730 square meters) of
        colocation space. Once fully built out, the facility will include more
        than 88,000 square feet (8,190 square meters) of colocation space.
    --  The ME2 IBX offers a wide range of interconnection options, including
        Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric(TM) (ECX Fabric(TM)), an on-demand,
        SDN-enabled interconnection service that allows any business to connect
        between its own distributed infrastructure and any other company's
        distributed infrastructure, including the world's largest network
        service and cloud providers on Platform Equinix. ECX Fabric provides
        access to the largest collection of on-ramps to cloud service providers
        in Australia including Alibaba, AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, SAP
        Cloud, Oracle, SoftLayer as well as many local providers, plus access to
        major network service providers including Telstra, Optus and Vocus.
    --  Located adjacent to the ME1 IBX with a secure pedestrian footbridge
        between the buildings, the ME2 IBX will benefit customers expanding from
        ME1 to ME2 with a single security ingress point. The proximity of ME2 to
        ME1 allows for seamless expansion of services for existing Equinix ME1
        customers and partners. The ME2 IBX also benefits from Equinix Metro
        Connect connectivity to the ME4 IBX in Derrimut, which is about 19
        kilometers away, providing customers with the ability to support
        geographical diversity and redundancy as needed to support full business
        continuity within the state of Victoria.
    --  As the only location in Victoria with direct access to Victoria Internet
        Exchange and the Australia Singapore Cable (ASC), Equinix's Melbourne
        campus offers connectivity to a broad range of more than 50 network
        service providers.
    --  The city of Melbourne is increasingly experiencing digital
        transformation and is predicted to have a digital economy worth
        approximately A$51billion (US$36 billion) in 2020.(3) Equinix's
        Melbourne data center campus enables companies to digitize their
        businesses by embracing cloud applications from more than 80 Cloud and
        IT service providers.
    --  As part of its multicloud strategy, The Salvation Army moved its key
        infrastructure to Equinix in Melbourne, while shifting critical business
        applications across workplace productivity, human resources and more to
        Software-as-a-Service.
    --  Capitalizing on the thriving economy, Equinix continues to expand its
        national footprint to meet the rising demand for interconnection. In
        2019, Equinix launched its eighth Sydney data center, SY5, and completed
        expansion of its second Perth facility, PE2. With today's opening of
        ME2, Equinix has a national footprint of 17 data centers across
        Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Canberra, Adelaide and Brisbane, with four in
        Melbourne.
    --  Since entering Melbourne in 2015, Equinix has built a mature ecosystem
        with more than 220 customers across multiple industries. The network
        effect of this growth creates increased need for further data center
        capacity to support businesses' increasing migration towards the digital
        edge.

Quotes

    --  Craig Tucker, Chief Information Officer, The Salvation Army"The
        Salvation Army is actively pursuing a multicloud strategy to ensure we
        deliver better and stronger outcomes for the organization. As a
        non-profit with a mission to serve vulnerable communities facing
        hardship or injustice, it's critical we efficiently use funds to meet
        the needs of those we serve. This has resulted in a standardized,
        national IT platform, where we have shifted critical business
        applications across workplace productivity, human resources and more to
        Software-as-a-Service, as well as maintaining our key infrastructure in
        Equinix IBX data centers. Equinix provides us with security, performance
        and availability in our new architecture and allows us to deliver on the
        big picture goals that will strengthen our ability to achieve our
        mission."

    --  Nikhil Batra, Associate Research Director, Telecommunications, IDC
        Asia/Pacific"Melbourne has a long-term vision as a smart city to adopt
        useful innovations that fold seamlessly into how we live, work and play.
        Equinix's investment in the city, which started with ME1 a few years
        ago, is now continuing with the opening of ME2, driven by the growing
        interconnection requirements of a flourishing smart city. Melbourne is
        leading the enterprise transformation charge in Australia, where
        organizations are focusing on customer experience transformation, and
        business process optimization in order to build the digital enterprise
        of the future."

    --  Jeremy Deutsch, President, Equinix Asia-Pacific"The value of smart
        cities has become increasingly recognized and is now a key priority for
        markets across the Asia-Pacific region as they continue to grow their
        digital economies. Equinix is dedicated to support this development by
        connecting people, businesses and industry so they can better
        interconnect at the digital edge. Our investment in the Australian
        market reflects our commitment to our customers as they continue their
        digital transformation journeys."

    --  Guy Danskine, Managing Director, Equinix Australia"Five years ago, we
        entered the Melbourne market with our ME1 facility. In that short time,
        we now have four sites in two distinct campus locations across the city,
        containing a flourishing ecosystem that enables secure, high-speed,
        low-latency connections for our customers and partners. This new IBX
        demonstrates our continued commitment to the Victorian and Australian
        digital economies, creating a place where our customers and partners can
        interconnect across our national footprint of 17 highly connected data
        centers."

Additional Resources

    --  Get a Sneak Peak Inside Equinix's Newest Data Center in Melbourne [blog]
    --  Equinix Melbourne data centers [website]
    --  Equinix ME2 IBX Specifications [website]
    --  ECX Fabric Datasheet [website]

About Equinix
Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) connects the world's leading businesses to their customers, employees and partners inside the most-interconnected data centers. On this global platform for digital business, companies come together across more than 50 markets on five continents to reach everywhere, interconnect everyone and integrate everything they need to create their digital futures. Equinix.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from expectations discussed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, the challenges of acquiring, operating and constructing IBX data centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix products and solutions; unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenues from customers in recently built out or acquired data centers; a failure to complete any financing arrangements contemplated from time to time; competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business from our key customers; risks related to our taxation as a REIT; and other risks described from time to time in Equinix filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see recent Equinix quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available upon request from Equinix. Equinix does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.

(1) Oracle and ESI ThoughtLab
(2) About the Fishermans Bend
(3) Invest Victoria

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SOURCE Equinix, Inc.