Datacentre provider Equinix yesterday officially launched its US$65 million SY3 datacentre in south Sydney, complementing its SY1 and SY2 centres located nearby.
(Credit: Equinix)
The new centre is directly connected to Equinix's existing SY1 and SY2 centres, and provides access to more than 60 network providers. It has been live since 30 June, with a number of existing clients from SY1 and SY2 extending their services across to SY3.
"Cloud Central, IntraPower and Orion VM have been quick to utilise SY3 to meet strong demand for their respective services," said Equinix Australia managing director Darren Mann, adding that SY3 will be an enabler of cloud services.
"We are experiencing a lot of demand from cloud and financial services companies," he said. However, when the company was asked whether Equinix would ever look into deploying its own cloud service, Equinix Asia-Pacific president Samuel Lee said that it would not be offering any services that compete with its customers.
In fact, the company was looking at promoting its own customers' products, saying it is launching a new internal "market place" next month. The market place will allow Equinix customers to advertise their services to each other to take advantage of the close proximity of their physical hardware. The company said it would be offering this at no charge.
Equinix's focus on customers inclusivity also extends to the direction in which the company takes in setting up new centres.
"A lot of our customers in Sydney are asking for Melbourne. We also had a lot of people that have actually told us that the cost of doing business in Melbourne is relatively lower and businesses are actually considering to establishing an establishment there," Lee said.
As a result of the demand, he said it was one of the places the company was looking to expand to. He didn't rule out the possibility of a national datacentre network, but said that Equinix would seek input from its customers for new locations.
The company has also said that it isn't interested in becoming a cloud provider. Lee said the company focuses more on providing power, space and cooling. While the recent focus on cloud over the past few years was great for business, Lee said, it's not something the company needs, adding that Equinix has a global 45 to 50 per cent profit margin on the current infrastructure services it provides.
For this reason, it's also not looking at reselling equipment in its datacentre.
"It's a low-margin business. When we take the equipment, we take the responsibility. It's a totally different business."
"If a customer comes to us and says, 'Hey, we want the equipment as well', what they mean is actually they want to turn capex into opex. They want you to give them the equipment and turn it into a monthly contract. That is something we are not that interested [in doing]. It's low margin," Lee said.
However, whatever equipment customers bring in, Equinix acts almost like a Swiss bank with regards to data confidentiality.
"Almost all of our customers are confidential. It's quite strange. Even down to the little guy in one cabinet, what he could be doing, we have no idea. We don't ask. Many of our customers say, 'Nobody knows I'm here', and that's confidence that we keep. It's part of our business," said sales director Jeremy Deutsch.
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