Equinix Data Center Expansion Boosts Interconnection Capacity in Northern Virginia

08 Mar Equinix Data Center Expansion Boosts Interconnection Capacity in Northern Virginia

Equinix recently acquired 34.5 acres of land in Ashburn, VA, to develop multiple International business exchange (IBX) data centers. The purchased land is in the proximity of the Equinix data center campus and will be used to extend the company’s footprint in the area. The four parcels of land were purchased at a cost of $34.5 million.

Equinix currently boasts of 10 IBX data centers in the greater Washington, D.C. area, with a total square footage of over 500,000 and serving over 850 clients. Once complete, the expansion will result in an additional five new data centers. According to Equinix, their IBX data centers represents the largest Internet Exchange point (IXP) in North America and one of the largest in the world.

An IXP is a network access point where large network providers interconnect and exchange network traffic. In addition to serving as a point of interconnection by Internet service providers (ISPs), the Equinix IBX data centers enable content providers, wide area network (WAN) solution providers, cloud service providers, enterprises and government departs to easily exchange data with their clients and business partners.

Northen Virginia has become an important IT hub with the largest colocation data center market in the USA and it is expected to continue growing.  It all started with the former UUNet facility in Ashburn, near Washington D.C, that was the first major Interconnection point and dubbed MAE-East (Metropolitan Area Exchange, East). Equinix developed its first carrier neutral colocation data center near MAE-East in 1998. Companies could access the network backbones operated by UUNet and AT&T from within the Equinix data center.

Today, large amounts of traffic, including 70% of all Internet traffic pass through Northen Virgia and most of it through the Equinix data centers. Almost 200 networks meet inside the facilities enabling the digital revolution.

The demand for data center services is not only driven by the federal government and businesses from all over the USA but also by businesses from all over the globe seeking colocation, cloud services and interconnection.

In addition to Equinix, several other data center providers including Raging Wire, Digital Reality, NTT and Level 3 operate data centers in the region. There are currently over 50 data centers in Northern Virginia and the expansion continues unabated.

For a quotation of data center colocation, interconnection, or other related services from Equinix or other providers, complete our data center colocation quotation form.