Today Equinix and du, the Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company PJSC based in Dubai, announced they have entered into an alliance to deliver data center and interconnection services to customers in the Middle East. This alliance will establish the first world-class, carrier-neutral hub in the region where carriers, content providers, cloud providers, financial service and enterprise customers colocate critical data infrastructure.
“The Middle East continues to strengthen its position as an important business hub and we are seeing increased demand from our customers for data center services across the region. We see Dubai and the UAE as a key business gateway and are excited to open a new data center in the area to help facilitate growth,” said Eric Schwartz, president, Equinix EMEA.
“Many companies are looking to expand their operations into and out of the area, and we will be working with du to provide the connectivity and services they require to succeed.”
To serve customers in the region, Equinix has acquired a newly built data center facility in Dubai. Equinix will operate this new IBX data center, which has capacity of 44,000 square feet and approximately 650 cabinets. The first phase of the data center is expected to be completed and open for business by January 1, 2013. Equinix expects to invest approximately US$40 million for the acquisition, upgrade and future expansion of this site.
Through this alliance, customers of Equinix and du will benefit from close proximity to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and regional market and have the opportunity to connect to more than 4,000 customers across Platform Equinix. This brings significant advantages to customers looking to expand their global footprint, and is expected to be a growth accelerator for businesses in the UAE and the rest of the Middle East region.
UAE-based organizations will be able to gain competitive advantage through the provision of operationally reliable, highly resilient and secure data center facilities located within country. The alliance will allow du to offer network, interconnection and data center services to its existing and growing UAE customer base.
See the entire press release for more details.
Any of our friends in the Middle East excited for a new IBX in their part of the world?
Photo courtesy of klebtahi
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