Equinix ready to open 2nd Colombian datacenter in June

Equinix is on track to meet its plans and open a second Colombian datacenter in June, Eduardo Zago de Carvalho, LatAm managing director of the US networking and datacenter group, told BNamericas.

“The site is practically ready. We already have clients, and closed some deals. It goes into operation in the middle of next month. It is a datacenter that is very close to our first datacenter, BG1, about 200m away. And we’re completing the interconnection [via fiber] between the two buildings,” Carvalho said.

Equinix’s first datacenter in Bogotá was one of 29 global sites that the group acquired from Verizon in 2017 for US$3.6bn. Both sites are located in the free trade zone of the Colombian capital.

The California-based company is investing US$45mn in the second Colombian site, known as BG2, which should have 550 cabinets and 2,900m2 in colocation space. Estimated power capacity was not provided.

Equinix invested US$300mn in the Americas in Q1, up from US$185mn in the same period 2022.

According to Carvalho, Colombia is a market where Equinix had repressed demand, even after expansions of BG1. The company claims to serve over 65 customers from that site, which also provides “on-ramps” to Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure.

Cloud on-ramps enable companies to access cloud applications from different colocation facilities. The structures are deemed as secure, private paths from private IT infrastructure deployed on server systems in a datacenter.

“With the entry into operation of BG2, we are able to cover this demand initially and accelerate the region's growth,” Carvalho said.

Equinix is also creating a new sales office in Colombia and increasing the number of people in the country to service parts of Central America, according to Carvalho.

Like some other companies, Equinix splits Latin America from an operational point of view into two areas: NOLA (North of Latin America) and SOLA (South of Latin America).

Beyond inherent market demand and international connectivity via submarine cables, Colombia is strategic for Equinix as it is located at the junction of these two regions, says the executive.

According to Equinix's estimates, around 94% of internet traffic in Colombia is driven by international content.

At present, the country has 10 submarine cables landing on its territory: SAC, SAIT, Maya-1, Colombian Festoon, Arcos, PCCS, AMX-1, CFX-1, SAM-1 and Globenet.

Another two (CSN-1 and Caribbean Express) are expected to enter service in the coming years.

According to consultancy Arizton, investments in the Colombian datacenter market are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.17% in 2022-28, fueled by cloud migration, 5G, procurement of renewable energy, and an increase in submarine cable connectivity.

The research firm estimates Colombia is likely to add close to 59,000m2 of datacenter space between 2023 and 2028, and total 26MW in power capacity by the end of the period.