KIO Networks makes first datacenter acquisition in Colombia

Mexican datacenter company KIO Networks has announced that it signed an agreement to acquire a new datacenter in Colombia. 

The facility, located in capital Bogotá, has 5,000m2 of construction, two data halls with more than 2,000m2 of white space and power capacity of 6MW for colocation services. It is certified by the Uptime Institute as Tier III. 

The site has additional land to build a second datacenter with similar characteristics, providing potential capacity of up to 12MW for the campus.

The details of the transaction were not disclosed.

KIO BOG1 is located in one of the most interconnected industrial complexes in the country, with more than 14 network operators.

The new facility will expand KIO’s footprint in Latin America and means that Colombia becomes KIO’s sixth country of operations, its fifth in the Americas and first in South America. 

"For KIO it is highly strategic to continue expanding in LatAm and we have chosen Colombia because we are convinced of the economic potential and the growing demand for our services in this great country. We are working very well with our investment partners, I Squared Capital, in the execution of our expansion plans," Santiago Suinaga, KIO Data Centers CEO, said in a release.

In December, Alejandro Ríos, KIO Networks' technology director, told BNamericas that the firm's expansion would include South America. 

"Growth is triggered by following the growth of clouds and their local areas. There are cloud announcements in the regions where we're looking to expand," Ríos said at the time.

COLOMBIA DATACENTER HUB

Colombia has become increasingly attractive for colocation and hyperscale investors, with various projects emerging this year.

For example, Equinix's second enterprise datacenter is expected to go live in the first half of the year. It involves a US$45mn investment and is located in Bogotá.

In the initial phase, Equinix’s BG2, a 2,900m2 colocation facility, will have capacity for 550 racks, with room to grow further in future phases. When construction is complete, the facility will have capacity for up to 1,100 racks.

Chilean telecommunication group GTD is also expected to activate a second datacenter in Colombia in 2023, located in Barranquilla. GTD already has 531m2 of white space for racks in a Tier III datacenter in Medellín, which it opened in early 2016.

With total investments of US$20mn, the firm's new datacenter will have 6,200m2 of floor space and a network of more than 500km in the city.

GTD recently accepted a non-binding offer from Australian investment group Macquarie Capital for the acquisition of 49% of a new subsidiary that covers all datacenters in Chile, Peru and Colombia.

Telecom operator Claro is also investing in datacenters. Last year, it announced a US$25mn investment to retrofit its Triara datacenter to host the Oracle cloud.

Brazilian neutral fiber network and connectivity provider V.tal also plans to activate its second edge datacenter in Barranquilla, Colombia before July.

Dubbed Chiva 2, the new datacenter is adjacent to the first building, Chiva 1. It has a total area of 3,700m2 and 600m2 of white space. Its total power capacity will be 2.1MW.

Last year, Hostdime opened the Nebula datacenter, a 6,500m2, Tier IV facility located in a tech park close to Bogotá.

Photo: AFP