Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ: EQIX) says it will build another International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in Helsinki, Finland. HE7 will be Equinix’s seventh IBX in Helsinki. The company expects to spend approximately $20 million on the first phase of the facility’s construction, with an eye toward opening the facility in the second quarter of 2019.
The company describes Helsinki as a gateway for connection between Russia, the Baltic states, and the rest of Europe. This includes submarine cables such as the Cinia C-Lion1 undersea data cable between Finland and Germany. Equinix provides connections to C-Lion1, which offers a capacity of 144 Tbps and a latency below 20 msec between Helsinki and Frankfurt, Equinix says (see "Cinia completes C-Lion1 submarine network, selects optical transport supplier").
Equinix says the HE7 data center offer secure connections to more than 135 businesses in Finland, particularly financial services and content and digital media companies. Outside of Finland, HE7 also will also provide interconnection through the Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric to more than 1,300 businesses including such communications services providers as Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Oracle Cloud. The facility will have 250 cabinets in its initial phase, with room to expand to 1,475 cabinets. It also will become part of Platform Equinix, which comprises 200 data centers in 52 markets globally to provide internet exchange services.
"Many of Equinix's local customers in Helsinki are looking to grow their presence as they require interconnection to cloud and SaaS providers to support IT transformation goals. As these businesses consider their options they realize the value of a future-proof environment for their digital journey,” commented Sami Holopainen, managing director of Equinix Finland. “Platform Equinix is more than 200 data centers – it is a platform for innovation."
Planning for HE7 has been in the works for some time; Equinix first announced its intention to build a seventh Helsinki faciilty as part of Platform Equinix in Fall 2016 (see "Equinix to add Internet Exchange in Finland").
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