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Equinix has opened two data centers, FR8 and FR9x, in Frankfurt. FR8 is an International Business Exchange (IBX) data center, and FR9x is the first of five planned xScale data centers.
Equinix is significantly expanding its presence in Germany. Equinix has invested a total of 103 million US dollars in the new FR8 building in the western part of the city of Frankfurt. Customers can use the full range of interconnection and colocation services in the carrier-neutral FR8. These include the software-defined service Equinix Fabric, which allows companies to connect quickly and flexibly with leading cloud and network providers, and Network Edge, which customers can use to modernize networks virtually. The automated bare-metal service Equinix Metal is also available via the Frankfurt campus. With this, customers can configure and deploy physical infrastructure within minutes.
“Frankfurt is not only a European financial capital but also one of the world’s leading data hubs,” said Jens-Peter Feidner, Managing Director, Germany, Equinix. “With the cross-industry, accelerated digitization, the need for computing power and private connectivity has also increased. Data centers are an essential part of the digital economy and provide the basic infrastructure connecting companies, clouds, and services. This infrastructure’s sustainable expansion and operation is a key concern for us. FR8 not only provides our customers with a powerful IT infrastructure but should also be as efficient and climate-friendly as possible.”
FR8 was designed to meet the highest sustainability and efficiency standards. Like all new Equinix buildings in Frankfurt, the building will have a green façade and roof plants.
The FR9x data center is part of the Hyperscale program of the joint ventures between Equinix and GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. As part of the program, the construction of five xScale data centers in Frankfurt is planned for 1.14 billion US dollars. After completion and expansion, the xScale data center portfolio worldwide comprises 32 data centers with an investment volume of 6.9 billion US dollars.
Among the major data center markets (FLAP), Frankfurt is the fastest growing location in Europe for private interconnection, with a compound annual growth rate of around 50%. With the construction of hyperscale facilities, Equinix is thus creating much-needed cloud capacities and laying the foundation for future efficiency gains and digital innovations.
The new xScale data centers are in strategic proximity to the rich digital ecosystems within Equinix’s IBX data centers to support enterprise customers with a strategic cloud focus. In Frankfurt, the proximity of FR9x to the neighboring FR2 campus allows Hyperscale customers to benefit from a direct connection to an ecosystem of around 10,000 companies from various industries and leading networks, cloud, and other service providers. Companies that operate their IT infrastructure in the neighboring colocation data center can, in turn, network with a leading cloud provider and thus accelerate their digital transformation.
Powered by a leading hyperscale company, FR9x is tailored to the specific needs and workloads of this global cloud service provider. The new building has 5,980 m² of white space.
“With the commissioning of our xScale data centers, we are making a significant contribution to ensuring that companies from the region have direct and secure access to leading cloud providers and increase cloud density. This is a decisive competitive factor for key local sectors such as industry, healthcare, and finance. Our data centers’ sustainable expansion and operation is a central concern for us because digitization and climate protection must be thought of together. To become carbon neutral by 2030, we continuously invest in efficiency upgrades and new technologies. As a member of the pilot project ‘Sustainable industrial park Fechenheim-Nord / Seckbach,’ our local development plans follow clear guidelines in line with the Frankfurt sustainability strategy”,
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