Data center specialist Equinix is building a $97 million facility in Sydney – its fourth in the city and fifth in Australia.

The new site codenamed ‘SY4’ has been designated as an International Business Exchange (IBX) and will host 3,000 racks once finished.

“The NSW Government has worked with Equinix to support the company’s growth in Sydney and we welcome the company’s latest investment which will help to ensure that New South Wales businesses have the opportunity to leverage world-class interconnection services,” said Stuart Ayres MP, New South Wales minister for trade, tourism and major events.

“These services assist in unlocking new revenue opportunities and drive growth in our digital economy.”

In March, Equinix opened ME1 - its first data center in Melbourne.

Expecting growth

According to a recent report from Frost & Sullivan, the Australian data center services market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 13.9 percent for the next five years, reaching AUD$1.7 billion in revenue by 2020.

Meanwhile Dimension Research found that 85 percent of Australian businesses are planning to deploy to multiple clouds within the next 12 months – something that will benefit Equinix with its Cloud Exchange platform, which offers direct connections to major public and private cloud providers.

The new 135,000 square foot data center will be located in Alexandria, a suburb on the south side of Sydney. The project has been divided into two phases which will deliver space for 1,500 racks each, and the company expects the first data hall to open its doors by the second quarter of 2016.

SY4 customers will get access to more than 250 cloud providers and more than 130 networks, and enjoy direct connections to the company’s three existing facilities through a dedicated fiber loop.

The project brings Equinix’ total investment in Australia to almost $360 million. This year, Equinix has already opened new data centers in London, Melbourne and Toronto. New York and Singapore are expected to get additional facilities before the end of the year.