Global data center colocation and interconnection provider Equinix has announced an investment of $42 million for its fourth International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in Mumbai, dubbed MB4. This move is intended to help India's expanding digital economy, which is predicted to reach $1 trillion by 2026. The new facility will expedite India's digital transformation by enabling domestic and international enterprises to grow their digital capabilities.
Commercial real estate and investment management firm JLL estimates that the Indian data center market would grow from 637 MW in H1 2022 to 1,318 MW in 2024. Furthermore, according to the Equinix Global Tech Trends Survey 2023, 85% of Indian IT executives asked said they want to raise their connectivity investment in the next year.
With the addition of the new MB4 colocation data center, Equinix says it will be able to better serve the growing demand for data center and interconnection services among enterprises in India by increasing its capacity for digital infrastructure.
"The increased digitalization of the economy is constantly driving the need for data center and interconnection services in India," said Manoj Paul, Managing Director of Equinix India. “We will be able to continue meeting the demands of our Indian clients when MB4, which is anticipated to be available in Q4 2023, becomes available. This will enable them to take use of our interconnection platform for effective access to many cloud service providers, network service providers, and other enterprises. This will hasten the digital transformation journeys of both current and potential clients."
700 Colocation Racks
The new MB4 colocation data center will provide Metro Connect access to the well connected Equinix data center facilities of MB1 and MB2, as well as increased connection choices to major telco networks. The first phase of MB4, which is expected to open in Q4 2023 (pending regulatory permissions), will have a capacity of 350 cabinets at start. When the building is finished, it should have 700 cabinets.
Equinix has 250 data centers in 71 metro areas, supplying digital infrastructure to over 10,000 of the top companies in the world. Equinix now has 52 data centers in major cities in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, and Singapore in the Asia-Pacific region. In an effort to facilitate firm growth into these expanding markets in the area, the corporation has recently revealed its intentions to enter Malaysia and Indonesia.
MB1 and MB2, two of Equinix's IBX data centers in Mumbai, are now operational. More than 300 domestic and international businesses house their digital infrastructure in the two data centers, which also give access to the top cloud service providers in the globe, including Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, and Amazon Web Services. In addition, they house five internet exchanges, over 165 internet service providers (ISPs), local carriers, worldwide networks, and content delivery network providers. Using on-demand, self-service connection, businesses may leverage Platform Equinix to instantly connect with these providers as well as their own global IBX installations.
Equinix said in March 2022 that it will be purchasing more than 5.5 acres of land in order to join the Chennai market. With an investment of more than US$86 million, Equinix announced in June 2022 that it will construct its third data center in Mumbai, dubbed MB3.
