A GREEN FACILITY

Equinix, Inc. has today opened the first phase of its new data center in the west of Frankfurt, Germany which adds 4,800 square meters of data center space to the company’s footprint.

Codenamed FR8, the new carrier-neutral data center required an investment of $103 million for the delivery of the first phase, which now offers the company’s cloud connectivity software service Equinix Fabric™ while the bare metal service Equinix Metal™ is also available through its Frankfurt campus.

“With the accelerated digitization manifesting across industries, the need for computing power and private connectivity has also increased. Data centers are an essential part of the digital economy, providing the fundamental infrastructure through which businesses, clouds and services interconnect to innovate and succeed,” said Jens-Peter Feidner, Managing Director, Germany, Equinix. 

“The sustainable expansion and operation of this infrastructure is a key concern for us; FR8 not only provides customers with a high-performance IT infrastructure, but also one that aims to be as efficient and climate-friendly as possible.”

As with all Equinix sites in Germany, the company announced that FR8 is powered with 100% renewable energy which aligns with Equinix’s commitment to the goal of achieving global climate-neutral business operations by 2030 based on science-based targets (SBTs), and setting a sample footprint as a founding member of the Climate Neutral Data Centre Operator Pact.

“Direct access to clouds, partners and digital services is essential for businesses to survive in the digital economy. With the new FR8 data center, we are again expanding our presence at the strategically important Frankfurt campus, offering our customers additional capacity and interconnection options that will allow them to implement their digitization on the foundation of a highly efficient infrastructure. We expect the sustainability measures taken in this context will make a valuable contribution to achieving climate neutrality by 2030,” said Eugene Bergen Henegouwen, President, EMEA, Equinix.

Prior to this announcement, Equinix announced an agreements to expand its joint ventures portfolios with GIC few months ago, which when closed and fully implemented will bring the xScaleTM data center portfolio to 32 facilities globally with over $6.9 billion in worth. The planned facilities for Europe include three data centers in Dublin, five in Frankfurt, one in Helsinki, two in London, two in Madrid, one in Milan, four in Paris, and one in Warsaw.