Equinix to open second data centre in Sofia

New state-of-the-art data centre will accelerate digital business and provide access to new markets.

Friday, 5th October 2018 Posted 6 years ago in by Phil Alsop

Equinix is to open the company’s second Bulgarian International Business Exchange™ (IBX^®) data center in Q1 2019. The $19M data center in the capital Sofia—called SO2—will support Bulgarian companies in their journey to transform their businesses through interconnection with digital supply chain partners, cloud adoption, and access to new markets around the World.

Bulgaria is a strategic location within the Balkans with access to the EU, Turkey and the Caucasus. The SO2 IBX data center will meet customer demand by providing approximately 350 cabinets in the first phase of build out with the opportunity to add 1,100 cabinets in subsequent phases. It will be the second Equinix data center in Sofia which is already home to 100+ companies including cloud service providers, network service providers, enterprises and content and digital media companies, who use Equinix’s global interconnection platform of 200 data centers around the world to connect to business partners and customers across their digital supply chains.

Today's service providers and enterprises must expand their capacity and capabilities for digital as they re-architect their IT. Companies can extend network infrastructure to the edge and enhance workload performance by shortening the distance between digital services and users. The SO2 data center will provide a secure environment for local businesses and multinationals who are looking to expand into Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Additionally, SO2 will have direct connectivity to the Bulgarian Internet Exchange (BIX).

Direct and private connectivity to strategic cloud service providers is essential as digital transformation fuels higher demand for localized digital services at the edge. According to the Global Interconnection Index, a market study published by Equinix, Interconnection between Enterprises and Cloud and IT Providers is projected to grow 98% per annum through 2021, supporting businesses building out new digital services and migrating existing workloads to third-party cloud platforms.

SO2 will use 100 percent green energy, a practice that Equinix’s original data center in Sofia—SO1—has leveraged since 2016. Equinix announced in 2015 its commitment to 100 percent clean and renewable energy for its entire global footprint. Through ongoing development of partnerships Equinix continues to deploy innovative new sustainable technologies including solar, wind and fuel cells, to make this commitment a reality.