REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Sept. 28, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the global interconnection and data center company, today announced support for the new FASTER sub-sea cable system which has the largest design capacity ever built on the trans-Pacific route – one of the longest routes in the world. The cable will be backhauled in to four of Equinix's International Business Exchange (IBX®) data centers on the West Coast of the United States including Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Seattle, to Chikura and Shima in Japan.

Highlights / Key Facts

• In May 2015, Cisco released its VNI Global IP Traffic Forecast, 2014 – 2019. Global highlights from the updated study include the following projections:
  • By 2019, there will be nearly 3.9 billion global Internet users (more than 51 percent of the world's population), up from 2.8 billion in 2014
  • By 2019, there will be 24 billion networked devices and connections globally, up from 14 billion in 2014
  • Globally, the average fixed broadband connection speed will increase 2.2-fold, from 20.3 Mbps in 2014 to 42.5 Mbps by 2019
  • Globally, IP video will represent 80 percent of all traffic by 2019, up from 67 percent in 2014.
• Networks are an essential part of business, education, government, and home communications. Many residential, business, and mobile IP networking trends are being driven largely by a combination of video, social networking, and advanced collaboration applications, termed visual networking. To remain competitive, network operators are expanding their infrastructures to meet demand for these new services—and are turning to colocation data centers that not only offer all the network-to-network connectivity of a telehouse, but also act as aggregation points for concentrations of customers in network-centric industries.
• FASTER will feature the latest high-quality 6-fiber-pair cable and optical transmission technologies, with an initial design capacity of 60Tb/s (100Gb/s x 100 wavelengths x 6 fiber-pairs). This new cable system will be landed at Chikura and Shima in Japan and will feature seamless connectivity to many neighboring cable systems to extend the capacity beyond Japan to other Asian locations.
• The FASTER cable system has the largest design capacity ever built on the Trans-Pacific route, which is one of the longest routes in the world. By connecting to Equinix data centers, FASTER and its users can leverage Equinix's mature business ecosystems and interconnection platform – Platform Equinix™ – which connects more than 6,300 global businesses in 33 markets around the globe.
• Global businesses are increasingly using more capacity to run IT operations including cloud-based applications. In both the Silicon Valley and Seattle, Equinix offers direct connectivity to leading cloud service providers including AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform via the Equinix Cloud Exchange™. These dedicated, private connections reduce network costs and provide higher, more consistent network performance than Internet-based connections for enterprise customers looking to build hybrid clouds.
• Earlier this year Equinix announced that it is boosting interconnection capacity by opening new data centers on four continents including North America and Asia. By providing this increased capacity, Equinix expands its role in advancing the digital economy's interconnected era, in which businesses are demanding increasing levels of interconnection to accelerate business performance.
• The FASTER consortium is comprised of six parties, including China Mobile International, China Telecom Global, Global Transit, Google, KDDI and Singtel. The system is expected to begin operating during the second quarter of 2016.

Quotes

• Jim Poole, vice president, global service providers, Equinix:
  "Equinix remains committed to accelerating business performance by connecting companies to their customers, employees and partners inside the world's most interconnected data centers. We believe that the FASTER cable system will increase the opportunity for interconnection between North America and Asia and we are excited to be supporting this new venture."

Additional Resources

• Equinix Accelerates Interconnected Era with Global Launch of Five New Data Centers [press release]
• Shaping the Interconnected Era [blog]

About Equinix
Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) connects the world's leading businesses to their customers, employees and partners inside the most interconnected data centers. In 33 markets across five continents, Equinix is where companies come together to realize new opportunities and accelerate their business, IT and cloud strategies. www.equinix.com.

Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from expectations discussed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, the challenges of acquiring, operating and constructing IBX centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix services; unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenue from customers in recently built out or acquired data centers; failure to complete any financing arrangements contemplated from time to time; competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business from our key customers; and other risks described from time to time in Equinix's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see Equinix's recent quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available upon request from Equinix. Equinix does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.

Equinix and IBX are registered trademarks of Equinix, Inc.
International Business Exchange is a trademark of Equinix, Inc.

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SOURCE Equinix, Inc.