As my hometown, Madrid has been the center of my life and a cultural destination for the world. Walking around this beautiful city — where nobody is a stranger — there is an ambiance of openness and richness of culture that comes from its 460-year heritage as the capital of Spain. Its incredible city center offers great museums, such as the world-renowned Prado Museum, parks, and expansive boulevards, lined with vibrant restaurants and pubs that serve a wide variety of delicious tapas dishes. It is a perfect place for people to meet and connect with each other.
Madrid as a metro, and Spain as a country, have the ideal conditions for expansive ecosystems of industry players, suppliers and relevant actors to come together and develop a robust digital economy. Proof of this is the influx of large companies that are deploying colocation and interconnection infrastructure in Spain, such as those present here or ones that have already announced plans to come here in the future.
For example, Madrid is taking the necessary steps to soon become the new central interconnection hub for southern Europe, thanks to the exponential growth of submarine cables interconnecting the country with America, Africa and Asia. Businesses such as Netflix, HBO, Disney, Skydance Media and Facebook are deploying more and more digital infrastructure to take advantage of the interconnection capabilities within Madrid due to the growing capacity in the new subsea cables arriving to the country (i.e., EllaLink, MAREA, Grace Hopper, 2Africa).
Beyond our market conditions and our privileged, geographical position, the role of Equinix and its global digital infrastructure and interconnection platform is key to facilitating digital transformation in both Madrid and Spanish markets.
Why Choose Madrid Data Centers?
Our Madrid data centers are the most connected and carrier-neutral facilities on the Iberian Peninsula. They offer cloud connectivity with a small carbon footprint to more than 45 providers.
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Why do flourishing digital businesses choose Madrid?
Business opportunities in Madrid are limitless. Its metropolitan area, which has soared to 6.7 million residents, makes the capital of Spain the third-largest metropolitan area in the European Union (EU) behind London and Paris. The geography of the Madrid metropolitan area spans a total area of 5,335.97 square kilometers (2,060.23 square miles).[i] In the center of Spain, Madrid is a well-placed gateway to the Iberian Peninsula, Europe and beyond. Most major Spanish businesses—including Telefónica, IAG and Repsol—operate headquarters in the Madrid metro area. Madrid is the fifth largest metro by GDP in Europe and is central to Spain’s growth, given its economic output, high standard of living and market size.
Spain offers a large domestic market, with more than 46 million consumers and a world-class business infrastructure. And because of its strategic location between Africa, Mediterranean Europe, and northern Europe, along with its strong ties to Latin America, Spain is fast connecting those countries and their cultures. According to the fifth annual volume of the Global Interconnection Index (GXI), a market study published by Equinix, Madrid is one of the top European metros leading in edge interconnection bandwidth capacity growth, with a projected 56% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) by 2024.
Madrid also leads Europe in 5G infrastructure and technology readiness, with the second highest level of fiber coverage in the continent. The metro area is also globally connected via a network of subsea cable routes to the Americas, Africa and Asia.
A global technology logistics and financial hub
Spain is a leading player in Europe in the following industries, with Madrid playing a key role in each market:
- Aerospace: Spain’s aerospace sector is fifth in business turnover within Europe, with Madrid generating 49% of Spain’s aerospace revenue.
- Pharmaceuticals: Spain ranks as the fifth largest pharmaceutical market in Europe, with Madrid receiving the highest percentage (26%) of the country’s biopharma R&D expenditure — more than any other metro.
- Information and communication technologies (ICT): Spain holds the fifth largest ICT market in the EU, with Madrid generating 46% of the ICT turnover, growing 5-7% annually since 2015.
In addition, Madrid contributes 80% of Spain’s turnover in the logistics/haulage sector—an industry that accounts for 10% of Spain’s GDP. Madrid is also one of the most competitive financial centers in southern Europe, with 72% of Spain’s banking activity executed by Madrid-based banks.
Why choose Equinix Madrid data centers?
Industry-leading interconnection resources
Madrid’s two Equinix International Business Exchange® (IBX™) data centers (MD1 and MD2), are the most connected, carrier-neutral digital facilities on the Iberian Peninsula. The facilities connect data networks from the Southern Hemisphere to European networks and international content providers, and are business hubs for more than 200 regional and global companies.
MD1 and MD2 data centers enable businesses to build a digital edge alongside the world’s largest interconnected industry ecosystems on Platform Equinix®, with upwards of 60 carriers providing network connectivity services. Customers can directly and securely access more than 45 cloud and IT service providers, including AWS, Google, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Salesforce via Equinix Fabric™ software-defined interconnection. And internet peering (IP) exchanges are available in the Madrid data centers via Equinix Internet Exchange™, ESpanix and DE-CIX.
Equinix IBX Data Centers in Madrid
In addition to the MD1 and MD2 IBX facilities, we will be adding two Equinix xScale™ data centers in Madrid as part of our agreements for additional joint ventures in the form of limited liability partnerships with GIC, SINGAPORE’S sovereign wealth fund to build out xScale data centers globally. xScale data centers serve the unique core workload deployment needs of a targeted group of hyperscale companies, including the world’s largest cloud service providers.
International launching point
Equinix operates more than 230 data centers in 65 major global markets, across 27 countries on 5 continents. As an international launching point for businesses around the world, Platform Equinix gives regional and multinational enterprises and service providers access to subsea cable routes such as:
- Southern Cross NEXT cable system, a private fiber-optic submarine cable network connecting Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tokelau, Kiribati, and Los Angeles.
- EllaLink connects Latin America and Europe for the first time.
- Google’s Curie links Chile to our Los Angeles metro data center.
- MAREA stretches from Virginia Beach, VA to Bilbao, Spain.
- Crosslake Fibre traverses Lake Ontario between our Toronto, Canada and Secaucus, New Jersey IBX data centers.
- RTI cable systems land in our Sydney and Tokyo facilities.
Reliability and sustainability
Our Madrid IBX data centers offer our customers a global availability record of more than 99.999% average uptime, redundant power supplies, and multiple options for reliable disaster recovery sites across Europe. In addition, our Madrid IBX data centers are certified to meet rigorous environmental and energy management standards. Equinix is committed to achieving 100% clean and renewable energy usage and investing in energy efficiency technologies to make significant carbon reductions across its global data center portfolio. As detailed in our recent “Future First” sustainability report, we currently use more than 90% renewable energy in our global operations, and in the European Union, Equinix purchases 100% renewable energy for all its sites.
All the right places, partners and possibilities
On Platform Equinix, you can quickly and simply deploy digital infrastructure around the world to interconnect digital core, ecosystem and edge locations for network optimization, hybrid multicloud, distributed data and security, and application exchange. Equinix’s global footprint provides multiple points of presence (PoPs) proximate to employees, partners and customers, where you can harness direct and secure, high-speed, low-latency connections for the best possible user experience. For example, you can build next-generation SD-WAN architectures for more flexible, scalable, secure and reliable connectivity to network, cloud and IT provider ecosystem partners and users at edge locations.
Equinix Madrid allows customers to deploy and connect digital infrastructure from the core to the edge by leveraging a wide range of IT services, including:
- Equinix Fabric™ – Connect digital infrastructure and services on demand at software speed via secure, software-defined interconnection across multiple metro locations. If you’re already on Equinix Fabric, you can expand to locations where your employees, partners and customers have a presence.
- Network Edge – Modernize your network and deploy digital-ready infrastructure from leading providers at the edge virtually, in minutes.
- Equinix Metal™ – Deploy interconnected, automated bare metal as a service and leverage physical infrastructure on demand, and scale up and down based on the ebb and flow of your business needs.
- Equinix Connect™ – Gain internet access through multiple internet service providers (ISPs) in one place, under one contract.
- Equinix Internet Exchange – Exchange internet traffic through the largest global peering solution across multiple markets.
- IBX SmartViewTM – Access operating and environmental data relevant to your IBX data center footprint in real time.
- Equinix Managed Services – Solve network, security, data, application and multicloud challenges with experts providing data center solutions and managed services. We offer access to major cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure.
As the world’s digital infrastructure company, Equinix delivers a trusted global platform that brings together and interconnects the foundational infrastructure that fuels digital leaders’ success. Learn more about how you can grow your regional or global business at Equinix Madrid.
You may also want to read:
IDC – A “Cloud-First” Approach for a Value-Driven Digital Transformation Strategy: Spain
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