Infotech Lead America: Global data center services provider Equinix announced that ALOG Data Centers of Brazil plans to build a new International Business Exchange data center in Rio de Janeiro.
The company, which has recently strengthened its presence in present in Hong Kong, will open the Rio de Janeiro center in the first quarter of 2013.
The investment for the first phase will be $20 million. The center will have space for 320 cabinets with a total capacity of 1,170 cabinets once all future phases are completed.
ALOG will also start construction on phase two of its SP2 data center in Sao Paulo, which is expected to be available in early 2013. SP2 phase two will have space for an additional 350 cabinets and is expected to cost $14 million in expansion capital. Both projects are reflected in Equinix’s guidance.
Equinix and Riverwood Capital completed the acquisition of ALOG in April 2011, and Equinix holds the controlling interest and sits on the board of directors of ALOG.
With its investment in ALOG, Equinix offers colocation, interconnection and managed hosting services from its three existing Brazil-based IBX data centers in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
The new IBX, RJ2, will be ALOG’s second facility in the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area. Equinix is seeing increased demand from multi-national customers, particularly in the financial services, networking and content industries, who are expanding in the South American market.
Recently, Frost & Sullivan said the Brazilian government expects expects six percent growth in the IT sector in 2012.
“As the seventh largest economy in the world, Brazil is experiencing continued economic and infrastructure expansion, making it an attractive country for multi-national investment. With the expansions in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, we are in a strong position to support increasing demand for Platform Equinix from key global customers looking to expand in the region,” said Charles Meyers, president of the Americas for Equinix.
