• Equinix aims to acquire GPX India’s business consisting of a fibre-connected campus in Mumbai with two data centres, adding more than 1,350 cabinets, with an additional 500 cabinets at full buildout.

Dubai:  Equinix, the global interconnection and data centre company, has acquired the operations of GPX Global Systems in India for an all-cash transaction of $161 million to support expansion.

The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of next year, subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approval.

Under the agreement, Equinix intends to acquire GPX India’s business consisting of a fibre-connected campus in Mumbai with two data centres, adding more than 1,350 cabinets, with an additional 500 cabinets at full buildout.

The facilities will add more than 90,000 square feet of colocation space to Platform Equinix when fully built.

GPX India facilities also host key internet exchanges such as Mumbai IX-DECIX, AMS-IX India, Extreme IX and Bharat IX, allowing ISPs, carriers, CDNs and large enterprises to exchange internet traffic.

Equinix customers will have access to a network-dense data center campus with more than 200 international brands and local companies, including the world’s leading cloud service providers (CSPs), leading networks, content delivery network (CDN) providers, all local carriers, 130 internet service providers (ISPs) and four internet exchanges.

 Both data centers are strategically located in Mumbai, home to the critical IT infrastructure of numerous global organisations and with international connectivity serviced by subsea cables at landing sites located nearby.

According to McKinsey, core digital sectors in India, such as IT and digital communication services are projected to double in size by 2025 to contribute $355-$435 billion to GDP.

Globally, Equinix comprises more than 210 data centres across 56 metros and 26 countries.

John Dinsdale, Chief Analyst and Research Director, Synergy Research Group, said that  the data centre market in India is expected to exceed $1 billion in 2020 and grow at 12 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2019-2024, the third highest rate in the world.

The research shows that the country will become the seventh largest data center market in the world in 2021.