The IT Nerd

 Equinix, Inc. today announced its planned entry into THE PHILIPPINES with the acquisition of three data centers from Total Information Management (“TIM”), a leading technology solutions provider.

Following the recently announced expansions in MALAYSIA and INDONESIA, this strategic move aims to help businesses expand and capitalize on the digital opportunity of the fast-growing SOUTHEAST ASIA region. The all-cash transaction represents a multiple of approximately 15x the projected EBITDA at full utilization and is expected to close in 2H 2024, subject to customary closing conditions.

The acquisition of the three high-performance data centers will provide capacity for Equinix to address the digital needs of local and overseas businesses in the Philippines. Enterprises, cloud and IT service providers, and network service providers around the world can leverage Platform Equinix to interconnect and exchange data privately and securely within a vibrant ecosystem of business partners and customers. Existing customers of TIM, including network and financial services companies, will also gain access to Equinix’s global ecosystems of more than 10,000 companies, including more than 2,000 networks and 3,000 cloud and IT service providers.

Southeast Asia’s digital economy grew to $218 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) in 2023.¹ In particular, the Philippines’ digital economy is expected to continue its upward climb toward $35 billion by 2025, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20%.² The country is also seeing a surge in demand for digital infrastructure services, driven by a highly engaged digital population,  booming e-commerce adoption and various government initiatives to promote digitization, such as the E-Government Masterplan 2022 and the Digi-Ed 2028 program.

Highlights / Key Facts

• The three carrier-neutral and interconnection-rich data centers include more than 1,000 cabinets of capacity and land for further expansion. These data centers will support the digital transformation of local and global customers looking to expand into the Philippines.
• As part of Equinix’s ambitious investment plans in the Asia-Pacific region, the company will expand in new markets including Jakarta, Indonesia (JK1) and Chennai, India (CN1) later this year. With the capacity allocation by the government, Equinix will also expand its footprint in Singapore. These expansions will reinforce Equinix’s leadership in the region and support the digital transformation of customers expanding into new markets.
• Today, the global footprint of Platform Equinix spans 260 data centers across 71 metros and 33 countries. In Asia-Pacific, Equinix currently operates 56 data centers in 14 key metros across Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore, including the recently opened data centers in Johor (JH1) and Kuala Lumpur (KL1) in Malaysia.

 Equinix, Inc. today announced the appointment of Marc Mondésir as Managing Director for Equinix Canada, effective July 8. Mondésir brings more than 20 years of experience building and empowering diverse teams to drive organizational transformation and growth. He has served in strategic leadership roles most recently at Microsoft and Dell. Andrew Eppich, long-time Equinix Canada leader, will transition to the role of Vice-President of Sales leading the sales function across Canada.  

As Managing Director, Mondésir will be responsible for leading and driving the growth of Equinix Canada. This includes leading the cohesive cross-Canada team to ensure alignment with global strategy, drive growth, develop interconnection hubs and build deeper and broader ecosystems in an inclusive environment where everyone feels safe, they belong, and that they matter. 

Most recently, Mondésir served as General Manager of Microsoft Canada’s Consulting Services. In this role, he was responsible for leading the team to help customers bridge their tech adoption gaps through deep industry capabilities and delivery excellence. This included leading Microsoft Canada’s GTM transformation; delivering consistent market revenue growth and enabling impactful culture transformation through the company’s employee resource groups’ leadership and allyship.  

Before joining Microsoft in 2021, Mondésir spent 14 years at Dell Canada in progressive leadership roles, including Country Leader and General Manager, Professional Services, and Director of Sales for Medium Business across Central and Eastern Canada including the Quebec market. 

Mondésir is passionate about solving complex problems by harnessing diverse teams, fueled by his advocacy of DE&I. He is an active mentor within the Black Professionals in Tech Networks and currently serves as a Board Advisor for property management technology start-up, Ananest’s Executive Leadership Team, consulting on Growth, Leadership & Culture. He studied communications at York and Ottawa University and holds an MBA from Queen’s University.  

Andrew Eppich has served as Managing Director since the Equinix’s Canadian expansion in 2020 and led the establishment of 15 data centres across 8 metros across the country. As Managing Director, Andrew helped cultivate the incredible, diverse culture and unique magic that Equinix Canada is known for, including recognition as one of Canada’s Best Workplaces for 2024®, as well as one of the Best Workplaces for Women and Best Workplaces for Mental Wellness. Now, Andrew will transition to the role of Vice President of Sales for Canada, leveraging his deep understanding of the local business and passion for sales to accelerate the company’s growth and success in Canada. 

Equinix – the world’s digital infrastructure company – is calling for municipal planning agencies, energy utilities and heat network operators in Canada and around the world to join the Equinix Heat Export program to unlock the value of the residual heat generated in its International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers.

As the world continues to digitize and there is an increasing demand for massive amounts of processing power to train AI data, current spec CPUs and GPUs are running constantly and are producing residual heat. Equinix is constantly innovating in order to operate in more sustainable manners and the newest innovation is by recovering residual heat from IBX data centres and exporting it to nearby buildings and communities.

TR5, one of Equinix’s IBX data centres in Toronto, is sharing heat throughout multiple residential buildings as well as a hotel, university, and local shopping centre in downtown Markham. TR5 is also servicing multiple buildings with domestic hot water all year long, through a partnership with Markham District Energy.

Equinix also plans to export heat in its newest IBX in Paris, PA10, and transfer it to the Plaine Saulnier urban development zone and the Olympic Aquatic Centre, which will host several events during the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Equinix is dedicated to expanding its Heat Export program in suitable locations, where data centers can serve as valuable heat sources for local communities.

Noah Nkonge, Design Delivery Principal, Equinix, details what data centre heat export is and how it works in the newest Equinix blog, which can be read here.

Equinix, Inc., the world’s digital infrastructure company™, today announced a series of product expansions to empower Canadian businesses from coast to coast. The enhanced offerings include the expansion of Network Edge to Vancouver, the launch of Equinix Managed Services in Canada – the first time it has been offered in North America; as well as the enhanced portfolio of offerings in Western Canada and Montreal. With the expansion of latest offerings, Equinix continues its investment in region to bring the full value of Platform Equinix and its portfolio of solutions to businesses across Canada. 

Equinix will be expanding its Network Edge service to Vancouver, British Columbia, marking the latest expansion of the service which is also available in Toronto and Montreal.  As a result, Equinix will empower businesses from coast to coast to build virtual infrastructure at scale while deploying network services at a predictable cost with no additional hardware. 

Equinix is launching its Equinix Managed Services offering to all Canadian customers, which is the first time the service will be offered in North America. Managed Services offers customers an optimized way of consuming market leading technology and services while accelerating time-to-market through pre-provisioned, and scalable infrastructure. 

By having Equinix manage technology lifecycle, capacity, configurations, and procurement, businesses can reduce IT cost and complexity, while being able to scale up or down as needed, without unpredictable costs or worrying about supply chain hardware shortages.  

Equinix will also be expanding its portfolio of services at its Kamloops and Vancouver Data Centers. Businesses will now be able to access Equinix Fabric, Equinix Internet Access, and Equinix Precision Time. Additionally, customers in Montreal will be able to now access Equinix Internet Exchange – which is the second metro in Canada to offer the service after Toronto.  

According to Equinix’s latest Global Tech Trends Survey, the majority of Canadian IT decision-makers (52%) report more aggressive IT strategies and 55% said they are further along in their digital transformation journeys as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, more than a third (39%) of global respondents said they plan to facilitate global expansion plans by deploying virtually via the cloud. As a result, businesses are increasingly moving to a virtualized, multicloud approach to reduce costs and mitigate risks including hardware supply issues. 

Highlights/Key Facts:

• Designed to accelerate digital transformation for global businesses, Network Edge by Equinix offers enterprises a new way to deploy virtual network services, within minutes, at the digital edge without a physical data center deployment or hardware requirements.
• Network Edge enables companies to reduce capital expenses and scale IT and network services globally by virtually deploying digital-ready infrastructure. By utilizing network functions virtualization (NFV), Network Edge offers customers the choice of virtual network services from leading vendors.
• Equinix Managed Services in Canada offer services for digital transformation that include the replacement, modernization and expansion of the IT environment.  Backed by stringent Service Level Agreements (SLA), these services help to solve data challenges through secure, flexible and scalable solutions. We use best practices with a variety of technical certifications to ensure world-class performance, flexibility and reliability. This provides up-to-date insights in IT infrastructure and data to optimize performance, availability, security and cost efficiency.
• Customers across Canada and from around the world can access Equinix Managed Services today through nodes in Calgary, Greater Toronto Area, Montreal and Saint John.
• Equinix Fabric is a software-defined interconnection service that allows any business to connect between its own distributed infrastructure and to any other company’s infrastructure on Platform Equinix. With Equinix Fabric integration built into both Network Edge and Equinix Metal over the trusted Equinix platform, digital leaders can bring together all the right places, partners and possibilities to create the foundational infrastructure needed to succeed.
• Equinix Precision Time is a network timing service globally available on Platform Equinix that’s designed to help enterprises that require precise time synchronization to run critical applications more effectively and securely. 
• Equinix Internet Access provides internet access in Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers. With at least two upstream ISPs in each market, Equinix Internet Access offers the resiliency that organizations demand and direct connections to major content destinations for superior performance.
• Equinix Internet Exchange enables networks, content providers and large enterprises to exchange internet traffic through the largest global peering solution across more than 30 markets.
• Equinix now operates 15 high-quality International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers coast to coast in Canada with six Toronto facilities three in Calgary, and one in each of the following metros: Kamloops, Montreal, Ottawa, Saint John, Vancouver and Winnipeg.

Equinix is the world’s digital infrastructure company, enabling digital leaders to harness a trusted platform to bring together and interconnect the foundational infrastructure that powers their success. Equinix enables today’s businesses to access all the right places, partners and possibilities they need to accelerate advantage. With Equinix, they can scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences and multiply their value.