Equinix

History

Equinix, Inc. was founded in 1998 by Al Avery and Jay Adelson, who were two facilities managers at Digital Equipment Corporation. The firm promoted its data center platform as a neutral place where competing networks could connect and share data traffic. The firm capitalized on the "network effect", through which each new customer would broaden the appeal of its platform. It expanded to Asia-Pacific in October 2002 and Europe in 2007, followed by Latin America in 2011, and the Middle East in 2013.

In 2018, according to Sludge, Equinix signed three contracts with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to provide technology support equipment totaling over $5 million. In September 2020, the company shifted its branding, describing itself as a "digital infrastructure company".

Equinix data centers in London, UK engaged with designer Maximilian Raynor, who created a dress from its repurposed data center equipment. The wearable art dress was constructed from 3,600 meters of network cables and was revealed at Raynor's London Fashion Week pre-show in February 2025.

Acquisitions and expansion

In 2002, Equinix merged with I-STT, the Internet infrastructure service subsidiary of Singapore Technologies Telemedia, and Pihana Pacific. This established the company's presence in China, Singapore, Australia and Japan. In 2007, the firm entered the European market by acquiring data center operator IXEurope and its facilities. In 2010, Equinix opened its 50th data center in London. Over the next seven years, the company nearly tripled its data center portfolio. The company attributed this growth to increased demand, which was caused by the emergence of cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and big data.

In 2010, the company purchased Switch and Data Facilities Company, Inc., a U.S. Internet exchange and colocation services provider. The company extended its operations to the Middle East and in Southeast Asia in 2012. Also in 2012, it acquired Hong Kong-based data center provider Asia-Tone. In 2014, Equinix increased its Latin American presence when it acquired ALOG Datacenters of Brazil S.A., the country's leading provider of carrier-neutral data centers.

In 2015, Equinix converted to a real estate investment trust (REIT) to gain tax advantages and add shareholder value. That same year, it acquired the professional services company Nimbo.

In May 2015, Equinix said it would purchase the British company TelecityGroup, the largest acquisition in the company's history. The offer was cleared by the European Commission in November after Equinix agreed to sell eight of its data centers around Europe to Digital Realty, while retaining its Telecity Harbour Exchange data center in London Docklands, an acquisition Equinix completed in a transaction valued at approximately $3.8 billion. The addition of these data centers more than doubled Equinix's capacity in Europe. In December 2015, the company purchased Japanese provider Bit-Isle, adding six data centers in Japan.

In 2016, Equinix opened new data centers in Dallas, Sydney, and Tokyo and announced a deal to acquire 29 data centers in 15 markets from Verizon.

In 2017, the firm opened a new data center in São Paulo. In that same year, Equinix acquired Itconic, which expanded its data center footprint into Spain and Portugal.

In 2018, Equinix purchased the Dallas Infomart building, where it had already been operating four data centers. It also acquired Australian data center provider Metronode and its 10 data centers. The company opened its first data center in South Korea the next year.

In 2020, Equinix finalized the purchase of Packet, a startup that provided bare-metal servers as a cloud service. The company expanded into India in August 2020, with the acquisition of GPX India, including a campus in Mumbai with two data centers. In October 2020, Equinix completed the acquisition of 13 Bell Canada data centers. The company also invested heavily in hyperscale xScale data centers.

On December 7, 2021, Equinix announced its acquisition of Main One, a West African data center and connectivity solutions provider, for $320 million.

In March 2022, Equinix expanded into Chile and Peru with $758 million acquisition of four data centers from Entel.

In November 2022, Equinix announced its market entry into Malaysia with plans to build a new International Business Exchange (IBX) data center located in Iskandar Puteri, Johor Bahru, Johore called JH1. With an initial investment of approximately $40 million, JH1 launched operations in Q1 2024, providing 500 cabinets and 1,960 square meters of colocation space.

In 2024, the company announced a $390 million expansion plan to build more data centers in Africa over the ensuing five years. Later that year, it partnered with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Singapore's GIC to develop new data centers, expecting to meet demand resulting from a boom in artificial intelligence.

Environmental impact

In 2015, Equinix announced a long-term commitment to power its data centers with clean, renewable energy. The announcement followed criticism in 2014 from the environmental group Greenpeace, which said in a report on internet companies’ environmental practices that Equinix was not doing enough to address renewable energy use or carbon emissions. In response, the company signed agreements with wind farms in Texas and Oklahoma to purchase renewable energy to offset electricity use at its North American data centers.

In September 2020, Equinix issued $1.35 billion in green bonds to help fund environmental projects. At the same time, the company introduced a Green Finance Framework to describe how it reports on and tracks projects funded through green debt.

In January 2021, Equinix joined the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact, committing to make their data centers climate neutral by 2030.

In 2024, the company expanded a heat export program that redirects excess heat from its data centers to nearby buildings. That year, Equinix vice president Christopher Wellise said that rising energy use from artificial intelligence was increasing strain on electrical grids and that AI development needed to be considered with sustainability in mind.

Equinix’s environmental efforts have been recognized by external organizations. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency named the company a Green Power Partner in 2019 and 2020 and Sustainability Magazine listed Equinix among the top ten sustainable data center providers in 2024.

Data centers

Equinix invested more than $25 billion in its data center platform. Data centers have been rebranded to International Business Exchanges (IBXs). In 2017, the company launched its own data center infrastructure management platform, IBX SmartView. The company's Internet exchange service allows Internet service providers and enterprises to exchange Internet traffic through a global peering tool.

Data center (IBX) locations

• Americas: United States, Brazil,{{cite news |access-date = 5 May 2014
• Asia-Pacific: Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, India, Malaysia.
• Europe and Middle East: Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Oman, United Kingdom.
• Africa: Nigeria, South Africa.

References

References

1. "Executive Officers & Directors".
2. (February 12, 2025). "US SEC: FY 2024 Form 10-K Equinix, Inc.". [[U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission]].
3. (16 June 2021). "CIO Spotlight: Equinix's Milind Wagle Is Using AI To Tune Up Its Internet 'Engine Room'". Forbes.
4. (5 June 2018). "Equinix, Digital Realty, and NTT remain colocation market leaders: Synergy Research". Lightwave.
5. (March 20, 2024). "Hindenburg shorts data center firm Equinix alleging inflated profit metric".
6. (1 June 2020). "Equinix to Expand Canadian Operations with US$750 Million Acquisition of 13 Bell Data Center Sites". Equinix.
7. Rohde, David. (2001-03-13). "Equinix makes the Internet sing". ITworld.
8. (2011-10-24). "Equinix Marketplace Seeks to Connect Customers". Data Center Knowledge.
9. (2002-10-02). "Press Release | Investor Relations | Equinix".
10. (2007-06-28). "Equinix Buys IXEurope for $482M". Data Center Knowledge.
11. Jones, Penny. (2014-07-25). "Equinix completes Alog takeover | News".
12. (2012-11-20). "Equinix Expands to Dubai, Sees Growth for Emirates". Data Center Knowledge.
13. (June 27, 2019). "Who Is Making Money From CBP in Your State?".
14. "Customs and Border Protection Vendors, 2010-June 24, 2019".
15. (23 September 2020). "Beyond Colo: Equinix Repositions as Digital Infrastructure Company". Data Center Frontier.
16. (January 31, 2025). "Equinix partners with designer for dress made from repurposed data center gear".
17. "Maximilian Raynor turned the Internet into a dress".
18. (3 January 2003). "Pihana-Equinix merger is complete". Pacific Business News.
19. (9 October 2002). "Pihana Pacific closing Honolulu headquarters". Pacific Business News.
20. (2010-03-30). "Equinix Opens 50th Data Center". Data Center Knowledge.
21. Booth, Nick. (2015-05-08). "Equinix CEO kept Telecity bid very quiet | Features". DatacenterDynamics.
22. Meyers, Charles. (2016-01-19). "Big Data Means the Cloud | InterConnections - The Equinix Blog".
23. "Equinix Focuses on WAN Reinvention, IoT – Daily Cloud".
24. (2010-05-04). "Equinix acquires Switch and Data for USD 683.4 mln". Telecompaper.
25. Sverdlik, Yevgeniy. (October 9, 2012). "Equinix partners with Indonesian firm for Jakarta data center | News". DatacenterDynamics.
26. Nicole Henderson. (2012-07-10). "Equinix Completes $230.5M Acquisition of Hong Kong Data Center Firm Asia Tone - Web Host Industry Review".
27. (2015-04-29). "Equinix Inc. Celebrates First Quarter As REIT With Massive Earnings Beat - The Motley Fool".
28. Gagliordi, Natalie. "Equinix acquires Nimbo to bolster professional services". ZDNet.
29. Young, Sarah. (2015-05-29). "Equinix to buy TelecityGroup for $3.6 billion, Interxion deal ended". Reuters.
30. "European Commission Grants Clearance for Equinix Offer to Acquire Telecity". PR Newswire.
31. (2016-07-06). "Equinix sells off 8 data centres for $874m".
32. "Equinix Press Release".
33. (20 July 2016). "BT broadband network hit by outage". Financial Times.
34. (2016-01-15). "Equinix Closes Its Blockbuster $3.8B TelecityGroup Acquisition".
35. Equity, Zacks. (2016-01-18). "Equinix (EQIX) Completes Much-Awaited Merger with Telecity - January 18, 2016".
36. (2015-11-04). "Equinix Closes Bit-isle Deal, Expands Japan Data Center Footprint". Data Center Knowledge.
37. "Equinix completes second phase expansion of Tokyo Data Center".
38. "Verizon Will Sell Data Centers to Equinix In $3.6 Billion Deal".
39. (March 13, 2017). "Equinix Opens Its Third São Paulo Data Center".
40. (Sep 11, 2017). "Equinix to Expand Into Spain and Portugal Through Acquisition of Itconic".
41. (12 September 2017). "Why Equinix is Buying the Spanish Data Center Firm Itconic". Data Center Knowledge.
42. (14 February 2018). "Equinix buys interconnection hub Infomart Dallas for $800M". ZDNet.
43. (18 April 2018). "Equinix completes AU$1b Metronode acquisition". ZDNet.
44. (30 August 2019). "Equinix opens in South Korea". Data Centre Dynamics.
45. (March 3, 2020). "Equinix's $335M Packet Acquisition Is Closed. Here's What's Next".
46. (March 3, 2020). "Equinix Paid $335M for Packet's Bare Metal Tech".
47. (11 August 2020). "Equinix Enters India With $161 Million Acquisition Of GPX Data Centers". CRN.
48. (11 August 2020). "Equinix expands into India with acquisition of GPX India data centers". The Economic Times.
49. (2 October 2020). "Equinix adds 13 Canadian datacentres to its portfolio as $178m Bell acquisition completes". ComputerWeekly.com.
50. (2 October 2020). "Equinix completes acquisition of 13 Bell data centers". Data Center Dynamics.
51. (9 March 2021). "Data Center Star Equinix Is On Fire Thanks To xScale". CRN.
52. (30 April 2021). "With Strong xScale Leasing, Equinix Steps Up Its Hyperscale Game". Data Center Frontier.
53. (January 7, 2022). "Noteworthy technology acquisitions 2021".
54. (18 March 2022). "Equinix Acquires Four Data Centers From Entel For $705M As Global Expansion Soars". CRN.
55. (16 June 2022). "EQUINIX ACQUIRES ENTEL'S DATA CENTER". Chambers and Partners.
56. (30 November 2022). "Equinix Enters Malaysia with $40M Data Center Investment". Cision PR Newswire.
57. "US Data Center Operator Equinix Plans $390 Million Africa Build".
58. "Equinix Forms $15 Billion-Plus Joint Venture with Canada Pension and GIC".
59. Ian Murphy. (December 2015). "Equinix makes climate pledge". Enterprise Times.
60. Jones, Penny. (2014-04-02). "Greenpeace gives Digital Realty, Equinix low grades on renewable energy | News". DatacenterDynamics.
61. (2015-11-16). "Wind Power Deals to Bring Equinix to 100 Percent Renewable in N. America". Data Center Knowledge.
62. (23 September 2020). "HG bonds: Equinix places $1.85B for long-term debt refi, green spending; terms". S&P Global.
63. (24 September 2020). "Equinix prices $1.85bn in bonds". FinanceFeeds.
64. (26 September 2020). "Big Tech's Climate Week News Cheat Sheet". SDxCentral.
65. (January 25, 2021). "Equinix joins European cloud and data centre providers to make pledge towards climate neutrality".
66. (June 11, 2024). "Equinix Data Centre Heat Warms Buildings and Swimming Poolse".
67. (March 19, 2024). "How AI Generates Both Climate Pollution and Solutions".
68. (5 September 2019). "Data-Center Landlord Equinix Touts Going Green". The Wall Street Journal.
69. (5 September 2019). "EPA Honors 2019 Green Power Leaders". The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
70. (January 12, 2016). "Green Power Leadership Awards".
71. (23 September 2020). "Microsoft, Equinix, QTS Cited for Green Power Leadership". Data Center Frontier.
72. (January 17, 2024). "Top 10: Sustainable Data Centre Providers".
73. (2 November 2018). "Equinix Sees 11% Increase In Third Quarter Sales As Building Rapidly Continues". Data Economy.
74. "Entrevista com Peter Van Camp." The Wall Street Transcript. (February 13, 2006)
75. (28 February 2017). "Equinix Rolls out Its Home-Baked DCIM Software for Colo Customers". Data Center Knowledge.
76. (5 June 2017). "Equinix brings datacentre monitoring tool IBX SmartView to Australia". ZDNet.
77. (4 December 2017). "Equinix Announces New Markets for Internet Exchange Service". Channels Partners.
78. (16 March 2018). "New Equinix internet exchange connects Ireland to 25 markets". Siliconrepublic.
79. (April 2, 2025). "Equinix inks first PPA in Japan with Trinasolar ISBU".
80. (2025-03-11). "Hyve Managed Hosting Launches New European Data Center in Frankfurt".
81. "Maximilian Raynor turned the Internet into a dress".
82. "Equinix MC1 Muscat IBX Data Center, Equinix Data Center in Al Batinah, Barka, Oman".
83. "Map of Equinix Data Center Locations".
84. "Global Data Center Locations".
85. Comment, Dan Swinhoe. (2024-10-24). "Equinix launches first South African data center in Johannesburg".