Equinix invests US$ 76 million in new data center in São Paulo
The SP3, located in Santana de Parnaíba, will double the company’s inventory in the country
Investe São Paulo
Equinix, a company that provides data center and interconnection services, will invest US$ 76 million in the first construction phase of SP3, its fifth IBX® data center in Brazil. Located in Santana de Parnaíba, the project includes other 5 phases and the approximately 2,800 SP3 racks will double the company’s inventory in Brazil. The first construction phase is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2017.
Investe São Paulo, the investment and export promotion agency associated with the Department of Economic Development, Science, Technology and Innovation of the State of São Paulo, has being assisting the project primarily in terms of tax incentives.
“The IT sector is treated as a priority by Investe São Paulo, as it is one of the sectors that most bring innovation and high-skill jobs to the economy,” said the president of Investe SP, Juan Quirós.
The new site will meet the IT infrastructure requirements for local and multinational companies seeking to expand operations in the Brazilian market. Today, the company has more than 800 organizations allocated in the country’s four data centers and the increased capacity will anticipate the needs for colocation projects in the state of São Paulo. SP3 will also be connected to Equinix Cloud Exchange™, which provides direct access to Microsoft Azure and Office 365.
“We have experienced an increased demand for interconnection and colocation in the Brazilian market. The new facilities of SP3 will meet these needs while providing to the companies in Brazil the opportunity to benefit from Equinix platform in the 40 markets where the company is present worldwide,” said Karl Strohmeyer, president of Equinix in the Americas.
SP3 will cover a total area of 20,000 square meters and will have more than 8,000 square meters of colocation area.
Approximately 13.3 megawatts of power will be available and the data center will have its own high-voltage substation and redundant lines to ensure greater reliability and stability than the traditional ones that supply the data centers.
The distance between SP3 and SP2, the company’s data center in Tamboré, SP, enables the connection between the sites through dark fiber via Equinix Metro Connect™. This solution provides for connectivity between different Equinix DCs to provide direct access to over 1,150 networks and over 6,300 companies with very low latency.
Earlier this month, Equinix announced the construction of four new data centers in Tokyo, Dallas, São Paulo and Sydney. Added to the recent acquisitions of Bit-isle, in Japan, and Telecity, in the EMEA region, the global interconnection platform will comprise almost 150 data centers by the end of the year.
Green IT and Certifications
Concerned about maximizing the energy efficiency of its data centers, Equinix will use a new cooling technology, which integrates indirect evaporative cooling and free cooling solutions in order to reduce the use of electricity in the air conditioning. In addition, SP3 will feature a solar energy collection system, which will feed the offices and common areas of the data center. The expectation is that by implementing the most efficient technologies available in the market today, SP3 will operate with PUE of less than 1.35 when fully operational.
As a result of these actions, the company will obtain the Silver-Level LEED certification, which ensures that the site built is in accordance with the sustainability criteria determined by the US organization Green Building Council.
The new data center will also be opened with the certifications Tier III Design and Facilities. The first one certifies that the data center construction project has been evaluated and is in compliance with all the rules of the Uptime Institute. The Tier III Facilities certifies that the facilities will meet all the prerequisites for performing maintenance without the need to shutdown client load.