EllaLink Collaborates With Equinix On First-Ever High-Capacity Subsea Cable Between Latin America And Europe

Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the world’s digital infrastructure company™, and EllaLink announced the first-ever high-capacity subsea cable system between EUROPE and LATIN AMERICA is in full operation. Delivered by EllaLink to Equinix’s International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers—SP4 in São Paulo, LS1 in LISBON and MD2 in Madrid—the new system provides a 50% increase in network performance between data centers in BRAZIL, PORTUGAL and SPAIN when compared to routes that had to previously transit through NORTH AMERICA. Reducing latency is a critical factor for content providers, cloud companies and financial firms, where a delay of a few milliseconds can impact the profitability of trading operations.

EllaLink selected Equinix due to the company’s expertise in providing state-of-the-art subsea infrastructure and its access to dense, rich ecosystems of networks, clouds, financial and IT service providers. Equinix serves as an interconnection partner in more than 40 of the current subsea cable projects.

Subsea cables are key to the internet and global connectivity, as 99% of intercontinental traffic crosses a subsea cable with less than one percent of the remaining traffic carried through satellite systems.¹ The global subsea cable market is expected to be valued at $22 billion by 2025, more than doubling from 2019. A significant portion of this growth is in cables connecting Latin America to the rest of the world.²

Highlights / Key Facts:

• Spain and Portugal are important gateways to Brazil and the rest of South America for many European markets. As the capital of Portugal, Lisbon is at the center of industry, government and commerce. It represents an important international connectivity hub, with subsea cables connecting the Iberian Peninsula from Lisbon to Africa and South America. Spain is also an essential hub on the global connectivity map due to its physical location between Africa, Mediterranean Europe and Northern Europe, and its strong cultural connection to Latin America. 5G deployments, the ongoing tech boom and growth in the use of data, telecom subscriptions and internet connections between the two continents are increasing bandwidth capacity requirements.
• The subsea cable momentum on Platform Equinix® has accelerated worldwide as digital transformation has increased globally. Equinix’s footprint of more than 230 IBX data centers in 65 global markets across 27 countries provides the metro edge points of presence (PoPs) required to deliver low-latency interconnection for transporting increasing volumes of internet traffic. At Equinix, subsea cable owners/operators can deploy cable landing stations that open gateways between continents and interconnect businesses around the world.
• According to the fifth annual Equinix Global Interconnection Index (GXI Vol. 5), overall interconnection bandwidth, the measure of private connectivity for the transfer of data between organizations, is forecast to reach 21,485+ terabits per second (Tbps), or 85 zettabytes, per year by 2024, representing a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 44%. This growth is aligned with the increased demand for the digital infrastructure needed to bring more businesses online, facilitate electronic integration with partners and supply chains, and reach more people in distributed hybrid work environments.

Quotes:

• Diego Matas, Chief Operating Officer, EllaLink
  “Offering one-hop connections between Latin America and Europe with a 60ms latency is a game changer from a transatlantic latency perspective. During these last months, EllaLink continued working directly with Equinix in order to secure carrier-neutral connections from our PoP locations in Equinix’s data centers and we are now enabling our customers to directly access the rich ecosystems of networks, clouds, and financial and IT service providers that Equinix hosts.”
• Michael Ourabah, Chief Executive Officer, BSO
  “BSO delivers low-latency, high- performance, highly available, private cloud infrastructure to customers in the capital markets sector. Our work to connect those in emerging markets with other trading networks around the globe has garnered significant results for the regions, even at this early stage. Working with Equinix and EllaLink, we feel we are well-placed to ensure that firms who want to access the Brazilian market have everything they need.”
• Jim Poole, Vice President, Business Development, Equinix
  “More data is being produced and processed today than ever before—and almost every byte of data that moves over the internet touches a subsea cable. As a result, organizations require access to high-capacity, low-latency networks capable of connecting them to data centers across oceans with the highest levels of reliability. This is where Equinix plays a critical role and offers a huge advantage to customers. Any user of a subsea cable network that lands inside one of our global data center termination points has instant, low-latency access to a host of industry ecosystems inside Equinix.”

Additional Resources

• EllaLink and BSO launch strategic partnership to develop financial markets between Europe and Latin America 
• Equinix 5G and Edge Tech Development Center Drives Innovation  
• Addressing the impact of latency – How low can you go? 

¹ ITIF, “Submarine Cables: Critical Infrastructure for Global Communications,” April 2019
² Norton Rose Fulbright, “Financing subsea cables in Latin America,” June 16, 2020

About Equinix
Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) is the world’s digital infrastructure company, enabling digital leaders to harness a trusted platform to bring together and interconnect the foundational infrastructure that powers their success. Equinix enables today’s businesses to access all the right places, partners and possibilities they need to accelerate advantage. With Equinix, they can scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences and multiply their value.

About EllaLink
EllaLink is an advanced optical platform offering secure high capacity connectivity on a unique low latency transatlantic route serving the growing needs of the Latin American and European markets. The EllaLink network directly connects Brazil and Europe, linking the major hubs of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza with Lisbon, Madrid and Marseille. The EllaLink System is being built with state-of-the-art coherent technology initially offering 72Tbps of capacity over four direct fibre pairs between Europe and Brazil. The landing sites in Fortaleza (Brazil) and Sines (Portugal) have been secured and EllaLink is scheduled to be Ready for Service in Q1 2021. EllaLink is a privately funded and independent company committed to providing products and services on a Carrier Neutral and Open Access basis. Marguerite II, a pan-European equity fund active in the renewables, energy, transport and digital infrastructure sectors, is the main shareholder of EllaLink. For more information visit ella.link 

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 data centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix products and solutions, unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenues from customers in recently built out or acquired data centers; a 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; risks related to our taxation as a REIT; and other risks described from time to time in Equinix filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see recent Equinix 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.

SOURCE Equinix, Inc.