Equinix today said it will invest $17 million to expand its Rio de Janeiro data center (RJ2) that will be completed in Q3.
The earlier investment in the RJ2 International Business Exchange (IBX) data center – opened in September 2013 — was $24 million.
The additional investment of $17 million in the new phase will assist Equinix to increase capacity by 310 cabinets for a total of 630 cabinets. RJ2 is located in the northern area of Rio de Janeiro. At present, more than 1,500 companies are colocated in Equinix’s facilities in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janiero.
Equinix already has 72 customers installed in the 320 cabinets of the first phase. The expansion will nearly double capacity.
Equinix has partnerships with subsea cable operators including Level 3, Telefonica, and Seaborn Networks, as well as telecommunications companies serving Brazil, to deliver global data traffic in and out of the country.
Earlier this month Equinix announced that it is expanding interconnection capacity by opening new data centers in five major markets including London, Melbourne, New York, Singapore and Toronto.
Eduardo Carvalho, managing director, Equinix Brazil, said: “Many companies that are customers in other regions are looking to move into the Brazil market utilizing our global platform – Platform Equinix.”
