Equinix to initially invest $50m for data center expansion in Singapore

That's for the first phase alone.

In a release, Equinix announced that its significant expansion to increase data center capacity in Singapore. Effectively, Equinix will be launching its third data center and expanding its second facility to meet strong market demand for premium data center services in Singapore

The company said that by developing its third International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) and expansion of its second data center, it will be solidifying its footprint in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific region.

Equinix also announced that it has commissioned Mapletree Industrial Trust, a leading industrial real estate investment trust listed in Singapore, to develop the new Singapore IBX, known as SG3.

Scheduled to open in the second half of 2014, SG3 will further extend Platform Equinix™ to meet strong demand for premium interconnection and data center services in Singapore from financial and cloud companies. SG3 will provide approximately 385,000 square feet of gross floor area and 5,000 cabinets over multiple phases. With a proposed investment of US$50–US$55M, the first phase will provide 1,000 cabinets.

At the same time, Equinix is investing US$55M in the fifth phase of its second Singapore IBX data center. The fifth phase of the expansion, which is expected to be available end of 2013, will provide 920 additional cabinets, bringing the total number of cabinets at this IBX data center to 4,176. It will also enable the provision of a high-connectivity, high-availability environment to support its customers’ cloud-based services.

SG3 will be located in close proximity to Equinix’s existing SG1 data center, which is located at one-north, a 200-hectare development by JTC Corporation designed to host a cluster of world-class research facilities and business park space to support growth in the biomedical sciences, infocomm technology, media, physical sciences and engineering industries.

SG3 and SG1 data centers will be interconnected through a dedicated fiber network, allowing customers in SG1 to expand their business within the Equinix platform. Direct tethering to SG1, which is the most network-dense data center in the country, enables customers in SG3 to interconnect as if they were in the same location.

Recognizing financial customers’ need for network-rich infrastructure with robust security, scalable, low-cost and low-latency connectivity, SG3 will be compliant with guidelines introduced by the Monetary Authority of Singapore in July 2012.

SG3 will also feature Business Suites for existing and new customers in Singapore who require larger footprints. With Business Suites, Equinix can offer customers bespoke solutions and an option to tie their larger deployments for select applications into Platform Equinix without sacrificing reliability or access to carriers and the Equinix ecosystem.

As the Singapore government continues to raise the bar in data center quality through eco-friendly initiatives that encourage the construction of green and modular facilities, Equinix has also pledged itself to driving sustainable technologies. In an effort to minimize energy consumption at these energy-intensive facilities, both SG2 and SG3 are designed with the aim of operating as energy-efficiently as possible.

Some of the green features deployed at SG3 ― and which are already implemented at SG2 ― include motion-activated LED lights, electrically commutated fans, an automated system that reduces a motor’s speed and power, as well as a cold aisle containment infrastructure that supports higher power density installations for more efficient cooling. Recycled NEWater is also used for cooling purposes, an energy-saving process that is aligned with the Singapore Government’s green initiatives. Additionally, a solar power system will be implemented, a feature unique to SG3.