Equinix has announced a new International Business Exchange (IBX) site at its London Slough campus. UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, has welcomed the £90m project which contributes to a total new investment in the UK’s digital infrastructure of £295m. The new flagship data centre, named LD7, is part of a fleet of new and expanded facilities on Equinix’s London Slough campus, and is due to open in early 2019. This new infrastructure will bring the company’s UK portfolio to 12 IBXs and supports increasing demand for capacity to handle growing volumes of data, including increasing traffic coming out of the City of London.
“Equinix’s investment reflects the growing demand for digital financial services in the City of London, and is a vote of confidence in its future as the world’s premier financial hub. This is exactly where we want to be heading”, said Mrs May.
Including current expansion projects, Equinix will have invested over £940 million to build and expand its presence in the London metro area. The campus processes a quarter of all of Europe’s equity trading, and connects the City of London with the rest of the world.
Equinix’s data centres, referred to as IBXs to reflect the rapid exchange of data between businesses globally, allow more than 1,000 firms in London, including capital market firms, insurers and e-payments companies, to process transactions securely. Companies such as Nasdaq rely upon Equinix sites for proximity to customers and partners in the City, which require high performance and rapid connectivity.
Equinix recently released the second volume of its new annual report, the Global Interconnection Index (GXI), mapping the growth of global data. The GXI shows that regardless of the UK’s departure from the EU, London is projected to be the largest market in Europe with regards to data, even if Frankfurt is the fastest growing market in the world.
Energy efficiency will be achieved at the site with the aid of an innovative Chilled Water System in combination with an Adiabatic heat rejection system. This will contribute to LD7 having lower energy consumption and a smaller carbon footprint than other facilities of its kind. As a result, the LD7 data centre will be built to LEED gold certified standards.
Russell Poole, Managing Director UK, Equinix, commented:“London is one of the most important connection points in the world and this is expected to continue post-Brexit as the city continues to play a crucial role in powering the global digital economy. Our decision to invest again in the UK’s digital infrastructure reflects our confidence that London will remain a leader in the global digital economy, regardless of the outcome of the negotiations over the UK’s departure from the European Union. LD7 will be one of the most technologically advanced colocation data centres in the world and will be a major addition to our thriving London Slough campus. This latest data centre will also act as a sustainability benchmark for future data centres – something we are very passionate about.”
Theresa May, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, commented: “Equinix’s investment reflects the growing demand for digital financial services in the City of London, and is a vote of confidence in its future as the world’s premier financial hub. This is exactly where we want to be heading.”
