Equinix, Inc. is an American multinational company headquartered in

Redwood City, California Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California's Bay Area, approximately south of San Francisco, and northwest of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people to being a ...

, that specializes in

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

connection and

data center A data center (American English) or data centre (British English)See spelling differences. is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommun ...

s. The company is a leader in global colocation data center market share, with 240 data centers in 27 countries on five continents. It is listed on the

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

stock exchange under the ticker symbol EQIX, and as of December 2021, it had approximately 11,000 employees globally. The company converted to a real estate investment trust (REIT) in January 2015.

History

Equinix was founded in 1998 by Al Avery and

Jay Adelson Jay Adelson (born Jay Steven Adelson, September 7, 1970) is an American Internet entrepreneur. In 2014 Adelson co-founded Center Electric with Andy Smith. In 2013 he founded Opsmatic, a technology company that improves productivity on operations ...

, two facilities managers at

Digital Equipment Corporation Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president un ...

. The firm promoted its data center platform as a neutral place where competing networks could connect and share data traffic. The firm capitalized on the "

network effect In economics, a network effect (also called network externality or demand-side economies of scale) is the phenomenon by which the value or utility a user derives from a good or service depends on the number of users of compatible products. Net ...

," through which each new customer would broaden the appeal of its platform. It expanded to

Asia-Pacific Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the part of the world near the western Pacific Ocean. The Asia-Pacific region varies in area depending on context, but it generally includes East Asia, Russian Far East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and Paci ...

in 2002 and Europe in 2007, followed by Latin America in 2011 and the Middle East in 2012. In 2018, according to data collected by the online publication Sludge, Equinix signed three contracts with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to provide "information technology support equipment" totalling over $5 million. In September 2020, the company shifted its branding to describe itself as a "digital infrastructure company".

Acquisitions and expansion

In 2002, Equinix merged with i-STT, the Internet infrastructure service subsidiary of

Singapore Technologies Telemedia ST Telemedia (STT) is a Singapore-headquartered strategic investor specialising in Communications & Media, Data Centres and Infrastructure Technology businesses globally. It is represented in 15 countries, 3 continents across Asia Pacific, the U ...

, and Pihana Pacific. This established the company's presence in China, Singapore, Australia and Japan. In 2007, the firm announced a $2 billion international expansion plan and entered the European market by acquiring data center operator IXEurope and its facilities. In 2010, Equinix opened its 50th data center, in London. Over the next seven years, the company nearly tripled its data center portfolio, growth the company attributed to increased demand caused by the emergence of cloud computing, the

Internet of Things The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other com ...

and

big data Though used sometimes loosely partly because of a lack of formal definition, the interpretation that seems to best describe Big data is the one associated with large body of information that we could not comprehend when used only in smaller am ...

. In 2010, the company purchased

Switch and Data Switch and Data Facilities Company, Inc. was a U.S. public corporation that provided network-neutral data centers and Internet exchange services to network-centric businesses. Switch and Data was acquired by Equinix in 2010. Switch and Data prov ...

Facilities Company, Inc., a U.S. internet exchange and colocation services provider. The company extended its operations to the Middle East and in Southeast Asia in 2012. Also in 2012, it acquired Hong Kong-based data center provider Asia-Tone. In 2014, Equinix increased its Latin American presence when it acquired ALOG Datacenters of Brazil S.A., the country's leading provider of carrier-neutral data centers. In 2015, Equinix converted to a real estate investment trust (REIT) to gain tax advantages and add shareholder value. That same year, it acquired the professional services company Nimbo. In May 2015, Equinix said it would purchase the British company

TelecityGroup Telecity Group plc (formerly TelecityRedbus and before that Telecity), was a European carrier-neutral datacentre and colocation centre provider. It specialised in the design, build and management of datacentre space. It was listed on the Londo ...

, the largest acquisition in company history. The offer was cleared by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

in November after Equinix agreed to sell eight of its data centers around Europe to

Digital Realty Digital Realty Trust, Inc. is a real estate investment trust that invests in carrier-neutral data centers and provides Colocation (business), colocation and peering services. As of December 31, 2019, the company owned interests in 225 operating ...

, but it still retained Telecity Harbour Exchange data center in

London Docklands London Docklands is the riverfront and former docks in London. It is located in inner east and southeast London, in the boroughs of Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, Newham, and Greenwich. The docks were formerly part of the Port o ...

. In January 2016, Equinix completed the Telecity acquisition in a transaction valued at approximately $3.8 billion. The addition of these data centers more than doubled Equinix's capacity in Europe. In December 2015, the company purchased Japanese provider Bit-Isle, adding six data centers in Japan. In 2016, Equinix opened new data centers in

Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

, Sydney and Tokyo and announced a deal to acquire 29 data centers in 15 markets from

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas ...

. In 2017, the firm also opened a new data center in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaW ...

. In 2017, Equinix acquired Itconic, which expanded its data center footprint into Spain and Portugal. In 2018, Equinix purchased the Dallas

Infomart The Infomart is one of the largest buildings in Dallas, Texas ( USA). It is the world's first and only information processing marketing center. It is located at 1950 N. Stemmons Freeway in the Market Center neighborhood between Oak Lawn and ...

building, where it had already been operating four data centers. It also acquired Australian data center provider Metronode and its 10 data centers. The company opened its first data center in South Korea the next year. In 2020, Equinix finalized the purchase of Packet, a startup that provided

bare-metal server A bare-metal server is a physical computer server that is used by one consumer, or tenant, only. Each server offered for rental is a distinct physical piece of hardware that is a functional server on its own. They are not virtual servers running i ...

s as a cloud service. The company expanded into India in August 2020 with the acquisition of GPX India, including a campus in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

with two data centers. In October 2020, Equinix completed the acquisition of 13

Bell Canada Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the borough of Verdun in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in ...

data centers. The company also invested heavily in

hyperscale In computing, hyperscale is the ability of an architecture to scale appropriately as increased demand is added to the system. This typically involves the ability to seamlessly provide and add compute, memory, networking, and storage resources to ...

xScale data centers. On December 7, 2021, Equinix announced its acquisition of

Main One The Main One Cable is a submarine communications cable stretching from Portugal to South Africa with landings along the route in various west African countries. On April 28, 2008, it was announced that Main Street Technologies has awarded a t ...

, a West African data center and connectivity solutions provider, for $320 million. In March 2022, Equinix expanded into Chile and Peru with $705 million acquisition of 4 Data Centers from Entel.

Environmental impact

In 2015, the company made a long-term pledge to power its entire data center platform with clean and renewable energy. The pledge followed criticism in 2014 from the environmental group

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

, which said in an annual report on the environmental practices of Internet companies that Equinix had an insufficient commitment to renewable energy and

carbon emissions Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and l ...

mitigation. The company signed deals with

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turb ...

s in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

and

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

to buy enough renewable energy to offset the energy consumption of its North American data center portfolio. In 2019, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency named Equinix one of 17 Green Power Partners leading the transition to renewable energy. In September 2020, Equinix priced $1.35 billion in green bonds to finance new and existing green projects. At the same time, the company announced a Green Finance Framework to standardize transparency reporting for green debt disclosures. In November 2020, the EPA gave Equinix its 2020 Green Power Partner of the Year award. In January 2021, Equinix joined the

Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact The Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact is a pledge of industry players and trade association of cloud infrastructure services and data centres in Europe to achieve climate neutrality by 2030. It is supported by the European Commission and Frans Ti ...

, and therefore engaged to have data centres climate neutral by 2030.

Data centers

Equinix claims to have invested more than $25 billion in its data center platform. The firm calls its data centers International Business Exchanges (IBXs). In 2017, the company launched its own data center infrastructure management platform, IBX SmartView. The company's

Internet Exchange Internet exchange points (IXes or IXPs) are common grounds of IP networking, allowing participant Internet service providers (ISPs) to exchange data destined for their respective networks. IXPs are generally located at places with preexisting ...

service allows ISPs and enterprises to exchange Internet traffic through a global peering tool.

Data center (IBX) locations

*Americas: United States, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Mexico *Asia-Pacific: Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, India *Europe and Middle East: Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom

References

External links

* {{NASDAQ Financial-100 American companies established in 1998 Real estate companies established in 1998 Telecommunications companies established in 1998 Real estate companies of the United States Telecommunications companies of the United States 2000 initial public offerings Companies listed on the Nasdaq Data centers Companies based in Redwood City, California 1998 establishments in California