Equinix opens flagship data centre in Frankfurt
American multinational connectivity expert, Equinix, has announced the expansion of its presence in Frankfurt by opening a new state-of-the-art flagship data centre, known as FR6.
The new International Business Exchange data centre, located at Campus Kleyer, offers low-latency connectivity to Europe and international markets, and is designed to meet the needs of data-intensive applications like electronic trading, data analytics, and various IoT scenarios.
Modern organisations are working to transform the way they create value in a digital world that is constantly evolving. They can extend network infrastructure and enhance workload performance by shortening the distance between digital services and end-users; by providing increased capacity in Frankfurt, Equinix provides an advancement in the digital economy during its interconnected era, serving businesses which are demanding increasing levels of interconnection.
Eric Schwartz, President, Equinix EMEA, said: "Businesses are increasingly interdependent and cloud-enabled, and they depend on social, mobile, cloud, IoT and analytics to compete. The old way of doing business is diminishing and future success depends on interconnection. We also see companies putting infrastructure in more markets around the world to optimize performance at the digital edge. The new FR6 data center gives businesses another option for direct and secure connectivity in this key international market, as IT becomes more distributed."
Frankfurt is among Europe’s leading financial centres as a hub for banking, commerce, and manufacturing, making it an ideal setting for FR6. Campus Kleyer is one of the most carrier-dense digital locations in Europe and among the most network-rich Equinix locations.
German businesses are becoming increasingly aware of the need to align their IT infrastructure closer to the digital edge. Market research business GfK, for example, is undergoing an IT transformation and selected Frankfurt as its IT hub for the region. All of its data for the EMEA region will run using Equinix IBX data centres by 2018.
Tarek Al-Wazir, Hessian Minister of Economics, Energy, Transport and Regional Development, said: "As a significant part of IT infrastructure, data centers are a prerequisite for the digitalization, indispensable for the processing of the ever growing data traffic and for operating the growing number of interconnected devices in industrial production and services. The Frankfurt region is an excellent location for this sector, whose power consumption already exceeds that of the Frankfurt airport, Germany's biggest employer. I am delighted that Equinix, a global leader in its field is opening its seventh data center and I am equally delighted that Germany's data centers are among the most energy efficient data centers in the world."
Burkhard Kehrbusch, Global Head of Information Technology, GfK added: "Earlier this year, we signed a service agreement with Equinix covering how all our EMEA data transfer will run via Equinix data centers by 2018. This partnership provides us with a scalable, cost-transparent access solution ensuring business-critical data is safeguarded with the highest levels of security. Lastly, the central location was a critical factor – Frankfurt is the ideal starting point for further expansion across Europe and the world."
