"The enablers of digitalization"

Big day on June 21, 2017 in Oberengstringen just outside Zurich: Equinix presented its expanded data center. The expansion created an additional 900 square meters of data center space and 280 cabinets in ZH5 to meet the ever-growing demand for connectivity and co-location. Around USD 20 million has been invested. As digitalization has become a strategic business principle, Equinix offers companies direct connectivity to network service providers as well as international cloud service providers such as Amazon, Microsoft Azure, Google and Softlayer. But Equinix also offers its data center services to "smaller" customers, such as those who want to run a private cloud and rely on the high data security standards in Switzerland. "In a way, we are the enablers of digitalisation," said Roger Semprini, Managing Director of Equinix Switzerland, at a media briefing.

New use of the former flower exchange
The ZH5 data center was opened in 2013 in the former flower exchange in Oberengstringen. With a total of around 6670 square meters, the site is Equinix's largest data center in the Zurich area when completed and houses one of the most important Internet nodes in Switzerland. The expansion was driven by high demand for data center space and interconnection from the financial community, cloud providers and the telecommunications market in this important economic region. ZH5 is connected to the other Equinix IBX data centers in Zurich via a fiber optic ring to create a high-performance, interconnection-ready campus for the greater region. In total, Equinix hosts over 90 network providers, more than 60 cloud service providers, approximately 40 financial firms, and more than 20 content providers and enterprise customers each in its Zurich data centers.

Safety at maximum - and ecology
The functioning data center infrastructure is "system critical" for Equinix customers. This means that a failure would have serious consequences not only for the customers themselves, but also for their users: credit card transactions would no longer be possible, or intranet connections between individual company locations would no longer function, making access to their databases impossible. It is therefore an open secret that operators of data centers such as ZH5 do everything in their power to ensure the greatest possible security. ISO 9001, ISO 27001 and other certifications are a matter of course - for some, the last audit was only a few weeks ago. A whole armada of employees - mostly specialists in the fields of information technology and electrical engineering - monitor the functions in the customer's server cabinets. An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and huge generators, which step in if necessary, ensure that no power failure can paralyse the networks.

Much emphasis is also placed on ecology. On the one hand, the data center was developed, planned and realized according to sustainable aspects. Secondly, the data center obtains 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources, primarily hydropower. Furthermore, the roof area is to be used for the installation of a solar system one day.

Further expansion planned
Zurich is an important interconnection and financial centre in Switzerland and centrally located in Europe. This makes the city on the Limmat River an important location from which all European destinations can be reached in a maximum of 30 milliseconds. Roger Semprini explains: "Switzerland, in the heart of Europe, is a key market for Equinix with an ever increasing demand for data center space. That is why we are continuously investing in our sites to meet our customers' needs for highly secure and high performance data centers. Today we can announce the completion of the second phase of expansion at the ZH5 IBX data center - with the next phase already planned."