In mid-March, Equinix announced it had opened its third Singapore data center, dubbed SG3. The company's new facility is its most expansive in the region, as it includes 385,000 square feet of data center space. The new Singapore data center is also connected to Equinix's other two facilities in the country, and is the first of five new data centers planned for the first half of the year.
Equinix established a presence in the area in 2002 when it launched its first Singapore data center, representing a $300 million investment. The initial phase of SG3 cost the company $53 million, with other phases to follow in the coming months and years.
The new facility was designed and built with data center sustainability in mind, utilizing the city's recycled water system, NEWater, to power its cooling capabilities. The structure has also been recognized by the country through its BCA-IDA Green Mark for Data Center certification, signaling the data center's efficiency in water and energy usage.
With this first phase completed, the Singapore data center can house 1,000 cabinets. Once fully completed, however, the structure will be able to accommodate a total of 5,000 cabinets.
Currently, more than 50 percent of Southeast Asia's commercial carrier and carrier-neutral data center space is situated in Singapore. At the same time, however, rising cloud adoption demands are spurring the need for additional facilities. Yeoh Keat Chuan, managing director of the Singapore Economic Development Board, noted that by the end of this year, the country will have 19 submarine cable systems providing links to several global markets.
"With Equinix's ecosystem of more than 1,000 networks worldwide, of which more than 190 are directly accessible from Singapore, the SG3 facility will further enhance Singapore's status as a key connectivity hub," Chuan said.
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