Posted by Mumbai: Digital infrastructure provider Equinix, Inc. invests over $9 million to acquire land in Chennai for expansion in India. The company said it has invested over $9 million to acquire land in Chennai on a long-term leasehold basis as part of its expansion and growth strategy in India.
Equinix invests over $9 million to acquire land in Chennai
The parcel of land is located at Chennai’s Siruseri area in the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu Ltd (SIPCOT) IT Park, providing a total space of more than 5.5 acres. The Siruseri area, also known as the IT Corridor of Chennai with a major presence of large and upcoming IT parks.
The southern Indian city of Chennai is strategic in terms of its location and critical infrastructure that includes accessibility to subsea cable landing stations, interrupted power supply and booming IT infrastructure.
According to Cushman & Wakefield’s 2021 Global Data Center Market Comparison report, Chennai is steadily emerging as a data centre hub and has made it to the top ten markets to watch in the world.
Data centres as the key infrastructure in India
Over 80 third-party data centres are currently operational in India and investments from both local and international players are expected to reach $4.6 billion per year by 2025, as per the Nasscom report.
“With the infrastructure status for data centres recently announced by the Indian government. India is well-positioned to grow as one of the most important data centre hubs in South Asia,” said Equinix India MD Manoj Paul.
“There is a lot of momentum and interest from large global players to establish and expand their footprint in India. Many of our customers are keen to expand beyond Mumbai. And Chennai is often their next requested destination,” added Paul.
“Thanks to the Industries Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, SIPCOT and Guidance Tamil Nadu for their support of Equinix’s growth into Chennai. At Equinix, we are focused on enabling digital business in the locations our customers request,” he commented.
Equinix’s investments and expansion in India
During the past one and a half years, Equinix has been steadily investing and expanding in India. The US-based Equinix first entered India in 2021 via the acquisition of two data centres MB1 and MB2 located in Mumbai.
These two data centres host the digital infrastructure of numerous global organisations and provide a total of 1,350 cabinets.
Besides, the company also launched a Global Center of Excellence (GCoE) in India to provide customers and employees with innovative and automated digital technologies to improve the resilience of their digital infrastructures.
Globally, Equinix operates 240 International Business Exchange (IBX) data centres across 66 metros, providing digital infrastructure for more than 10,000 businesses.
In Asia-Pacific, Equinix currently has 52 IBX data centres in key metros across Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea and Singapore.