Equinix has acquired the India operations of GPX Global Systems for US$161 million.
The India operations of GPX includes includes a fibre-connected campus in Mumbai with two data centres, Equinix said in a statement. This move will help Equinix in India to unlock opportunities for Indian businesses expanding internationally and for multinational corporations pursuing growth and innovation in the Indian market.
With the upcoming 5G rollout in the country, companies can get ahead in the digital era with Equinix and benefit from the ability to accelerate their evolution from traditional to digital businesses by rapidly digitising and scaling their infrastructure, adopting hybrid multicloud architectures and interconnecting with more than 350 international brands and local companies in India, the company said.
Equinix also announced that its India operations will be led by Managing Director Manoj Paul, a veteran with more than two decades of experience who will leverage his deep insights into the local data centre industry to support the digital transformation journeys of businesses in India.
Appointed as Managing Director, Paul has over 25 years of experience and prior to Equinix, he led the India operation of GPX India, helping it to emerge as India’s most prominent carrier-neutral and cloud-dense data center. Before joining GPX India, Paul spent 11 years with Bharti Airtel Ltd, where he was Chief Operating Officer (Enterprises) for the Western region.
Jeremy Deutsch, President, Equinix Asia-Pacific said: “India presents enormous opportunities for digital leaders in Asia-Pacific. Bringing Platform Equinix to India not only solidifies Equinix’s position as the leading digital infrastructure provider in Asia-Pacific, but also provides a new option to local enterprises and multinationals operating in India to interconnect and manage their digital infrastructure in Mumbai. We believe our global expertise and unique interconnection ecosystem will continue to empower businesses in India.”
Manoj Paul, Managing Director, Equinix India added that extending Platform Equinix to India with the addition of two world-class, highly interconnected data centres provides a platform for additional expansion across the country. “With the global footprint of Equinix and the industry’s largest ecosystem, we are well-positioned to be a critical part as well as a driving force of the digital revolution in India, helping businesses to leap forward domestically and globally,” he said.
Strengthening India ties
With this acquisition, the two new International Business Exchange (IBX) data centres in Mumbai, dubbed Equinix MB1 and MB2, form a network-dense data centre campus with more than 350 international brands and local companies, including the world’s leading cloud service providers (CSPs), global networks, content delivery network (CDN) providers, all local carriers, 170 internet service providers (ISPs) and five internet exchanges.
Home to the digital infrastructure of numerous global organisations, the two data centres in Mumbai provide an initial 1,350 cabinets, with an additional 500 cabinets to buildout. The facilities will add more than 90,000 square feet of colocation space to Platform Equinix when fully built.
Equinix’s Mumbai campus offers a cloud environment and direct access to major cloud services, including AWS Direct Connect, Google Cloud Dedicated Interconnect and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure FastConnect. It also hosts key internet exchanges such as AMS-IX India, Extreme IX, Mumbai IX-DECIX, National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) and Bharat IX, allowing ISPs, carriers, CDNs and large enterprises to exchange internet traffic.
According to Frost & Sullivan, India is anticipated to become a US$2 trillion digital economy by 2030, growing at a 21 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR). It also forecasts that 40- 50 per cent of Indian businesses will be taking a containerised hybrid multicloud approach for deploying applications by 2025.
Current customers at GPX India will now be able to access Platform Equinix capabilities worldwide. For example, OPPO, a leading global smart device brand, has deployed in MB2 and is leveraging Zenlayer’s IP transit and IP peering services to support its critical IT operations in India, including the OPPO App Market Store, local official website, and end-user data.
With this acquisition, Equinix will further support OPPO’s omnichannel strategy in India and its global expansion ambitions as it can easily replicate its digital infrastructure with Equinix in India to anywhere via Equinix’s global platform.
Over the years, Equinix has supported India-based partners, including HCL Technologies, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro, in deploying their customers’ digital infrastructure at Equinix IBX data centres outside of India.
Globally, Platform Equinix comprises more than 230 data centers across 65 metros and 27 countries, providing data center and interconnection services for more than 10,000 of the world’s leading businesses, including more than 50 per cent of Fortune 500 companies. Today, Equinix operates 49 IBX data centers in Asia-Pacific across 13 metros in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea and Singapore.
Joe Zhu, Founder and CEO of Zenlayer said: “With over 185 points of presence around the world, Zenlayer continues to provide businesses with low latency and worldwide on-demand edge cloud services. Our global edge cloud platform, when combined with Equinix’s global footprint and cloud ecosystems, will further optimise our customers’ hybrid multicloud infrastructure and enhance the digital experiences for users.”
JP Morgan, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP were advisors to Equinix, and KPMG and Kanga & Co were advisors to GPX.
