As we entered Q4 of arguably the most challenging year of the last decade, we continued to see positive movements within this thriving sector. October has been a busy month and has seen plenty of investment, development and some high-profile leadership moves across the globe. 

Some notable high profile moves included Ashley Muldoon, former Multiplex CEO, joining Global Switch as Chief Operating Officer and Richard Brandon, former Structure Tone Director of Mission Critical joining Cyrus One as Head of European Design and Construction. 

 Industry Insights.

There were several key investments and acquisitions during October. Stonecourt Capital acquired a majority stake in 365 Data Centers whilst Lumerity Capital and Longboat Advisors, the original investors have reinvested in the new partnership. Stonecourt have a track record of supporting growth businesses with financial and strategic resources (DCD, 2020). 

Equinix continued their aggressive acquisition strategy by completing the purchase of 13 of Bell Data Centers facilities for $780m. Andrew Eppich who is Equinix’s VP of Sales for UK & Germany will become the MD of their Canadian operations. The all cash deal includes 600 customers with over 500 of them new to Equinix and is expected to generate $112m in annual revenue. 

Over in Europe there has been several key announcements. Most notably Equinix have announced they will be outfitting two warehouses in Manchester, UK. The site will be their fifth data center hub in Greater Manchester. Down south Ark Data Centers have acquired Renault site in London that has been occupied since 1930. Renault will continue to operate the building until construction starts in 2022. 

It has been said by Knight Frank that Europe will have four “Gigawatt markets” for data centers as investment accelerates. Dublin has joined Frankfurt, London and Amsterdam as one of Europe’s data center hubs and all four are expected to exceed 1GW of capacity by 2023. 

Princeton Digital Group Raises $360m.

Singapore based Princeton Digital Group (PDG) have been involved in a high-profile announcement after entering into an agreement for $360m equity investment led by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board. 

An initial round of funding in 2017 gave PDG $500m which was used to develop an 18 data center portfolio across Singapore, China, Indonesia and India. PDG now target new markets in the APAC region and it has been previously mentioned locations such as South Korea, Japan, the Philippines and Malaysia are attractive propositions. 

Google buys 33-acre UK Site for Potential Data Center.

Google has acquired a 33-acre site North of London in Broxbourne, Hertforshire with the intention to possibly build its first UK based data center. Google has 5 data centers across Europe with this site now possibly becoming tech giant’s 6th. However, it does not sound as though the decision to build we come any time soon as a google spokesperson told CITY A.M “While we do not have a confirmed timeline for development for the site, we want to ensure that we have the option to further grow, should our business demand it. We don’t expect to take any decision on this in the near future.” 

T5 Acquires Former Apple Data Center San Jose. 

T5 Data Centers has acquired a former Apple owned data center in Newark, San Jose boasting 17MW of critical power. Although it has not been confirmed by T5 that the site is in fact the Apple DC, pictures released by T5 match those of the 39800 Eureka Drive site. The company plans to develop an additional 32.1MW, 180,000 square foot (16,800 sq m) expansion at the site. 

Digital Realty’s Interxion Acquires Land near Vienna for 40MW Data Center.

Interxion, the European provider of carrier and cloud-neutral colocation data centre services, has acquired 22,000 square meters of land just 1km from its existing site in Vienna. The provider intends to develop the site to add a further 41MW of critical power to its existing site. Not only this but Interexion also announced the businesses arrival in Croatia through the acquisition of Altus IT also announced they are building a 4th data center in Madrid (Sillicon Alley Madrid) that will have up 34MW of critical power. 

Stack Break Ground on Campus in Hillsboro.

Stack Infrastructure have started building their POR03 data center close to Portland. Initially a 24MW facility will be built and is expected to be online Q3 next year. Matt VanderZaden, Chief Strategy Officer at Stack said ‘Hillsboro continues to be an enduring, popular destination for clients, with its access to plentiful power, low-cost carbon free supply options like wind, solar, and hydro, and excellent connectivity to major West Coast availability zones and international markets.’ (DCD, 2020)