Supporting Singapore’s lead as the regional digital hub by providing agile and resilient digital infrastructure for enterprises in the region
by Suman Gupta
India – August, 2021 – Equinix, Inc., the world’s digital infrastructure company™, today announced the opening of its fifth International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data center in Singapore, SG5. With an initial investment of US$144 million, the purpose-built facility helps address the need for a sustainable, future-ready digital infrastructure to enhance enterprises’ digital resiliency.
Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative and digitalization efforts over the years have led local and regional businesses to realize the importance of an agile and resilient digital infrastructure to their business success. According to the latest Equinix Global Tech Trends Survey, 88% of surveyed companies in Singapore indicated that digitizing their IT infrastructure was a top priority, with 66% believing interconnection will help them navigate challenges.
Sustainability is becoming increasingly important for Singapore and businesses worldwide. Equinix’s Future First sustainability strategy and its 100% renewable energy goal are aligned with the country’s sustainable agenda, including the Singapore Green Plan 2030. In fact, Equinix has operated with 100% renewable energy in Singapore since 2020. Equinix is also the first in the data center industry to commit to reaching global climate-neutrality by 2030, backed by its science-based targets (SBT) and sustainability innovation agenda.
In conjunction with today’s opening of the SG5 IBX, Equinix organized a virtual event attended by Ms. Sandra Ng, Group Vice President, Practice Group, IDC, Mr. Foong Sew Bun, Managing Director and Group Head of Technology Services, DBS Bank, Mr. Romain Groleau, Managing Director, Accenture Southeast Asia and Mr. Wong Joo Seng, Founder and CEO, Spark Systems, to discuss sustainable digital infrastructure for Singapore and the region.
Highlights / Key Facts:
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The SG5 IBX is a new nine-story facility located at the Tanjong Kling data center park. Its addition strengthens Equinix’s cross-island presence and location diversity, with all five of Equinix’s current IBX data centers strategically spread across the island.
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The first phase of the SG5 IBX has more than 41,700 square feet (more than 3,970 square meters) of colocation space, offering an initial capacity of 1,300 cabinets. At full buildout, it will offer 5,000 cabinets, with a total colocation space of close to 129,000 square feet (12,000 square meters).
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The SG5 IBX is directly connected to the four existing Equinix IBX data centers in Singapore via low-latency dark fiber links and will enable customers to securely interconnect with more than 700 companies in the market. This expansion of our global platform allows customers to choose from a broad range of network services from over 200 providers, and interconnect directly to customers and partners on Platform Equinix® in their digital supply chain.
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Over the years, Equinix has been working with the government of Singapore and the wider business ecosystem to enable stakeholders in the private and public sectors to access global digital pathways, underpinning and driving innovation forward. Equinix hosts the most network-dense data centers in Singapore, and its IBX data centers have been purpose-built to meet stringent safety and data security guidelines of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). These facilities offer unparalleled digital access for financial services institutions in Singapore to deliver their workloads, supporting Singapore’s status as the regional financial hub.
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Addressing the urgency of climate change, Equinix is aiming to become climate-neutral and make a 50% absolute reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions across its global operation from a 2019 base year by 2030 as part of its Science-Based Target initiative. Aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement, this commitment is a critical step as Equinix continues to advance investments and innovations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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SG5 leverages Equinix’s bespoke and innovative surface cooling technology, known as the Equinix Cooling Array, supporting high density customers whilst reducing water and power consumption needs. Combined with connection to Singapore’s recycled NEWater (ultra-clean, high-grade reclaimed water), an energy-saving process that is aligned with the Singapore government’s green initiatives, SG5 is well positioned to support customer’s requirements from higher densities to their environmental and sustainability needs.
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Equinix Singapore data centers are also certified to meet rigorous environmental and energy management standards. The Equinix SG1 IBX data center is BCA-IMDA Green Mark certified; the SG2 and SG3 facilities have been certified to meet Platinum status; and SG4 is certified to meet GoldPLUS status. SG5 is also on schedule to meet the BCA-IMDA Green Mark and LEED certification.
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Equinix’s global platform currently spans 230 IBX data centers across 64 metros. In Asia-Pacific, Equinix has 47 IBX data centers in key metros across Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Singapore.
Quotes:
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Sandra Ng, Group Vice President, Practice Group, IDC Asia/Pacific
“2021 opens new chapters for organizations on their way to the future enterprise, with the appearance of two interconnected DX cornerstone themes — digital acceleration and digital resiliency. IDC predicts a platform-based approach for digital resiliency will lead to better business performance. The rise of new data centers built in Singapore will further strengthen the country’s Smart City digital infrastructure and help drive business ecosystems towards collaboration and co-innovation with sustainability in mind for the future.”
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Joo Seng Wong, Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer, Spark Systems Pte Ltd
“Singapore is well-placed to serve the region and this will further crystalize its position amongst top global financial hubs, like New York, London and Tokyo. With the inclusion of SG5, the time it takes for a financial trade transaction is expected to drop significantly from 360 milliseconds to 1 to 2 milliseconds. This is a quantum leap in terms of latency improvement which cannot be achieved without the infrastructure that Equinix provides. I look forward to continue working with Equinix to bring further innovations into the financial services space.”
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Jeremy Deutsch, President, Equinix Asia-Pacific
“Businesses in the Asia-Pacific region continue to increase their demand for digital infrastructure, with Singapore being the epicenter for digital business growth in the region. We see a growing shift in the priorities of business leaders towards investing in environmental, social and governance initiatives when they consider their digital transformation plans, and Equinix is in full alignment with these goals as we put our sustainability targets into action. The expanded footprint in Singapore further brings our global target towards building the digital infrastructure of tomorrow responsibly and sustainably.”
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Yee May Leong, Managing Director, Equinix South Asia
