Global colocation and interconnection provider Equinix has opened the first phase of its eleventh data center in Tokyo, Japan.

TY11's $70 million phase one consists of 950 cabinets spanning 39,800 square feet of colocation space.

Big in Japan

Once all phases are fully complete, the data center is expected to house 3,500 cabinets on 153,800 square feet of data center space, making TY11 the company's largest Japanese data center. It is built to be earthquake-resistant and is equipped with anti-disaster measures.

Equinix’s new facility is in Ariake, a district of the eastern Koto ward of Tokyo. The district is home to the Ariake Arena which will be used in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics for the volleyball and wheelchair basketball events.

Equinix now operates thirteen data centers in Japan, with eleven in Tokyo and two in Osaka. Japan makes up more than a quarter of the 42 IBX data centers that Equinix operates across Asia Pacific.

Karl Strohmeyer, chief customer and revenue officer, Equinix, said: “Asia Pacific has always been a highly strategic and thriving market for us, thanks in part to its burgeoning digital market, which is driving demand for interconnection and data center services. We are excited to continue our investments and expansions in the region.”

When TY11 was first announced, Kei Furuta, managing director of Equinix North Asia, said: “Tokyo is one of the major financial centers in the Asia-Pacific region, and we have seen rapidly increasing demand for interconnection from customers in different sectors, as they seek access to multiple clouds and real-time data transfer across geographies.”

TY11 customers can connect to domestic and international carriers, including cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure.