Can Data Centers Have “That New Car Smell?”

It’s official. Equinix is open for business in Dallas.

Actually, we’ve been in Dallas for quite some time. 20 years to be exact. But when you build a state-of-the-art data center from the ground up with all the bells and whistles, everything just feels new again.

If a data center can have that new car smell, this one has it in spades.

We call our newest International Business Exchange™ (IBX^®) data center “DA11,” and it’s a beast. This 4-story IBX was purpose-built with every modern option imaginable. Flexible, modular design? Check. 5G sandbox? Check. Custom sustainability features? Check.

Location, Location, Location

It’s not just what you build, it’s where you build it. Enter Dallas.

We’ve been in Dallas since 2000, and for good reason. It’s one of the most interconnected cities in North America and a critical gateway to Mexico and Latin America. According to 451 Research (part of S&P Global Market Intelligence), the Dallas multi-tenant data center market remains among the top five in the US.[1] It’s also home to more than 25 Fortune 500 companies and is the fourth-largest region in the U.S. in terms of gross domestic product (GDP).[2]  Some notable companies that call Dallas home are FedEx, JP Morgan Chase and Walmart, to name a few.

DA11 sits right next to the Infomart Data Center™, an Equinix-owned landmark building and one of the largest interconnection hubs in the nation. Four of our 210+ IBX data centers are located in this massive structure. These data centers ­– when combined with our four additional Dallas-area data centers – house over 135 networks and 145 cloud and IT service providers, more than any other provider in the region.

Listen, Listen, Listen

Yes, we like to talk about expansion. It makes us proud. But let’s be honest, growth is nothing more than a by-product of listening to customers. Our customers doing business in Dallas have asked for highly interconnected colocation facilities close to banking, telecom, tech, healthcare and logistics companies, and we’ve responded.

And with the growing opportunity in LATAM, our customers want a powerful interconnection gateway to the region. According to Volume 3 of the Global Interconnection Index (GXI) Report published by Equinix, enterprise consumption of interconnection bandwidth is expected to grow by 63 percent CAGR in LATAM by 2022 and will contribute up to 11 percent of interconnection bandwidth globally. That’s why we recently acquired three data centers in Mexico from Axtel. These data centers, along with our IBX data centers in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Bogota, bring our LATAM total footprint to ten.

But demand for increased interconnection goes beyond a single city or region. Businesses all over the world are in the midst of a massive transformation as they evolve their operations to digital and cloud-enabled.

In the America’s region, we also recently announced the intent to acquire 13 data centers across Canada from Bell Canada. Whether headquartered in the north, south, east or west, businesses want the ability to accelerate from traditional to digital by rapidly scaling their infrastructure, adopting hybrid multicloud architectures and interconnecting with strategic business partners within the Platform Equinix^® ecosystem of nearly 10,000 customers.

“Ours go to 11”

There’s a famous scene in the 1983 rockumentary spoof Spinal Tap in which guitarist Nigel Tufnel claims his amps “go to 11.” Logic being that most guitarists can only turn the volume up to 10, but his amps are custom made to go “one louder.”

We like to think DA11 also goes to 11 ­(although our logic seems more reasonable than Nigel’s). Here are some facts about our new flagship:

• DA11 incorporates Equinix’s Flexible Data Center (FDC) design principles. Design flexibility means it can accommodate any size deployment, from a single cab up to a large, highly-dense deployment.
• The first phase of DA11 offers capacity of 1,975 cabinets and colocation space of approx. 72,000 square feet. When future phases are complete, we expect capacity of 3,850 cabinets and 144,000 square feet of colocation space.
• At Infomart, directly adjacent to DA11, Equinix will offer a 5G and Edge Proof of Concept Center (POCC), which will serve as a 5G and edge “sandbox” environment enabling mobile network operators (MNOs), cloud platforms, technology vendors and enterprises to directly connect with the largest edge data center platform in order to test, demonstrate and accelerate complex 5G and Edge deployment and interoperability scenarios.
• In the spirit of Equinix’s long-term goal of using 100 percent clean and renewable energy, DA11 customers will see reductions of their CO₂ footprint through the use of energy-efficient systems. These include lighting and adaptive control systems, as well as cold-aisle containment that reduces energy consumption while enhancing cooling efficiency.

To learn more about DA11, check out our product page to download the data sheet and schedule a virtual tour. See you there!

[1]451 Research (part of S&P Global Market Intelligence), Stefanie Williams, Analyst, Multi-Tenant Datacenters, Dallas Multi-Tenant Data Center Market, October 2019.

[2] U.S. News & World Report, Leins, Casey. “Dallas-Fort Worth Gained More Residents Than Any Other City in 2018,” April 22, 2019.