Equinix Abandons 8 Leased Data Centers In Strategy Shift

Digital infrastructure giant Equinix says it will depart from eight leased data centers across the U.S. between 2022 and 2025.

The decision, which will see the company exit select spaces and migrate customers to newer facilities in markets like Atlanta, California and New York, was reached following a review of its data center footprint. Equinix said the locations did not align with its customers’ digital infrastructure needs or the company’s long-term strategic business goals.

The company has added a number of services in recent years such as virtual networking and bare metal servers, both of which require contiguous space. This, coupled with its continued customer growth and desire to provide the most modern and efficient data center infrastructure, systems and technology, contributed to the decision, according to Data Center Frontier.

“As a part of this review strategy, we have identified several sites in the U.S. where, over the next several years, we will not renew our leases and will relocate customer operations from those data centers to modern Equinix facilities in interconnection-rich data center campuses,” Equinix said in a statement to Data Center Frontier 

In its Q1 2021 earnings call, Equinix President & CEO Charles Meyers also stressed the importance of advancing “a bold sustainability agenda across all dimensions of ESG.”

According to its 2020 corporate sustainability highlights, Equinix was able to attain more than 90% renewable energy coverage for its global data center footprint and achieved an A-minus on its climate change survey with CDP, a not-for-profit group that helps companies, investors, cities, states and regions measure, manage and disclose their corporate climate change data.

Equinix is well-known for completing energy-efficient upgrades and retrofits at its leased data centers. However, many older data centers demand significant capital to improve issues such as aging infrastructure and inadequate power or cooling systems. To date, the company has invested more than $129M to such upgrades, its website states.

Moving forward, the company has its sites set on increased sustainability with a goal to use 100% clean and renewable energy throughout its global portfolio, as well as new capacity, updates and expansions.

Equinix will retain two data centers in Atlanta, four in Los Angeles, nine in New York and 13 in Silicon Valley, according to Data Center Dynamics.