Investing in APAC

Best Data Center Services Provider	Equinix
Last year's winner:	new category
Business segments:	Mobile voice and data, m-payments
CEO & President:	Stephen Smith
Key stats:	Revenue (2012) $1.8 billion (up 21% yoy), APAC revenue $302 million (up 40% yoy); ebitda $895.7 million (up 24% yoy), APAC ebitda $145.7 million (up 48% yoy); 800+ APAC customers; 500+ APAC employees

Equinix has invested $160 million in new data centers in Asia, where it now has 18 facilities covering more than one million square feet. It runs data centers in Tokyo, Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Sydney, and has a partnership deal in Jakarta with DCI.

Globally it operates 97 data centers in 16 countries covering seven million square feet. Last year it acquired Hong Kong-based Asia Tone for $230.5 million, giving it an additional six data centers and a disaster recovery center. Almost 20% of its workforce is now based in Asia.

The company bills itself as the leading global interconnection platform, providing a carrier-neutral offering with access to global carriers, regional players and ISPs.

"We have relationships with 900 NSPs - the major advantage of this is a 15-30% cost reduction for customers by being able to use the right players in each market. This also brings down the speed of data transmission," says Andrew Rigoli, VP of corporate development at Equinix.

"Our key differentiator is having inventory at the right place at right time. We also give companies room to expand, with quick deployment," he says.

It segments its customer base into four key categories: network & cloud, financial services, content & digital media, and enterprise. With 75 exchanges and trading platforms, Rigoli says Equinix is a leader with financial service providers. "We want to be as close to the trading partners as possible for better pricing for transactions."

He expects the emerging ecosystem will be cloud based. "We've seen some major cloud firms (storage, CRM, SaaS, IaaS...) coming into our sites for a multi-tiered cloud strategy. Customers want to be closer to those companies and get a cross connect to that infrastructure."