The twelve counties that comprise the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex are home to more than 25 Fortune 500 companies and boast the title of the 4th largest U.S. region in terms of gross domestic product (GDP).[i] Local industrial growth has been on a sharp upward trend in several sectors including, transportation, healthcare and energy, and more recently, in automotive, retail, insurance and banking. The favorable tax climate and low-cost of living in Texas attract many enterprises such as FedEx, JP Morgan Chase, Liberty Mutual, Southwest Airlines, Toyota and Walmart to locate their global and regional headquarters in the state.
Why choose Dallas International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers?
Our Dallas International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers are in one of the top 10 largest metro areas in the United States with nearly 7 million residents. Through the Infomart Center™, our Dallas IBX data centers serve a high concentration of telecommunications companies and enterprises as the major communications hub for the Southern U.S., and Latin America.
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The Metroplex is also a big draw for tech companies and talent. Industry giants such as AT&T, IBM, Microsoft, Nokia and Samsung operate innovation centers there that continually entice other companies to join these collaborative communities. The Metroplex initially began its courtship with high tech companies in 1985 with the launch of the Dallas International Information Processing Market Center (“Infomart”), a permanent trade show for information technology (IT) vendors. A modern-day visionary, Trammell Crow built the 1.6 million square feet, seven-floor building in the style of London’s Crystal Palace with a mind to stimulate growth in IT by assisting corporations with its adoption. As technology evolved, tenant vendors’ showcased applications such as local area networking, electronic publishing, computer aided manufacturing and client server architecture.
Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex
In 2000, we built our first Metroplex-based Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data center inside the Infomart complex. It was the fourth IBX data center in our portfolio, which now encompasses more than 200 facilities worldwide. A landmark building and legendary technology hub, the Infomart sits at both geographic and technological centers in North America, which encouraged further Equinix expansion in the facility, and eventually, its purchase in 2018.
“Today, Infomart remains a microcosm of IT’s evolution,” said Equinix Security and Compliance Manager, Thomas Jones, who worked for Trammell Crow during the creation of the Infomart. “The latest generation of technology companies leverage Infomart’s fiber crossroads, finding new and innovative ways to assist corporations as they embrace information technology to accelerate digital transformation.”
A central hub for interconnection for the Americas
The Infomart is one of the largest interconnection hubs in the U.S. and is currently home to four of eight Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers in Dallas (DA1, DA2, DA3 and DA6). These eight data centers house over 135 networks and 145 cloud and IT service providers—more than any other data center provider in the region.
Dallas Infomart
Pinned in a commercial epicenter of the North American continent, the Dallas Infomart is a strategic site for cross-continental internet traffic exchange. Strategically positioned between two high-throughput, long-haul fiber optic networks, the Infomart acts as a major regional interconnection hub and a mid-way point for connecting metros across the U.S. and into Mexico. The Dallas Infomart is tied via terrestrial fiber optic cables to the three new Equinix IBX data centers in Mexico, enabling enterprises to directly connect to leading clouds in Dallas, as well as reach businesses in other regions of the world via Equinix Cloud Exchange FabricTM (ECX Fabric™).
A rich history of interconnecting ecosystems
Platform Equinix® was founded with the simple idea of giving networks a neutral place to efficiently exchange data traffic, and our growing presence in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex has followed the same path. As the internet began to emerge, so did a new class of telecom companies. Allegiance Telecom and MCI both installed Class 5 switches and brought fiber into the building. This environment attracted a bevy of internet service providers (ISPs) who used the building’s network diversity to facilitate direct cross connects to their customers and network partners. The new ecosystems that followed included content providers, financial trading exchanges, and cloud providers – our fastest growing sector in the region today. We are also seeing increasing growth in enterprises, as they transform their IT infrastructures to keep pace with the acceleration of digital business.
Ecosystem Interconnection Evolution on Platform Equinix
Disruptive technologies are flourishing
Satisfying business demands and consumer expectations will continue to require low-latency, high-speed interconnection for private data exchange between businesses. This includes providing proximate interconnection for disruptive technologies such as esports, digital payments, internet-of-things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI), which are accelerating in the region. Mobile-ready apps are increasingly in demand for streaming video, real-time transactions, and unified communications and collaboration, which are contributing to the rapid growth of 5G adoption.
Expanding the vision
Global companies, like those headquartered in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, are seeking to expand their IT capabilities to edge locations to accelerate their digital transformation. They are looking for cost-effective, vendor-neutral colocation operations that offer expansive regional and global reach, with direct multicarrier and multicloud access and low-latency connectivity to business partner ecosystems. This is why enterprise interconnection growth has been such a critical focus for us within the Dallas Infomart, and where we anticipate future growth.
Equinix, in true Dallas “big vision” style, is building ahead of the needs of its partners and customers to ensure that this prospering market will be both supported and stimulated during the global shift to digital. The highly anticipated completion of the Equinix DA11 IBX data center is coming soon, so watch this space for more news on what’s coming next!
You may also like to read the IDC MarketScape Report.
[i]U.S. News & World Report, Leins, Casey. “Dallas-Fort Worth Gained More Residents Than Any Other City in 2018,” April 22, 2019.
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