Equinix to Build $74M Jakarta Data Centre to Enter Indonesia Market

Equinix has joined the rush into Indonesia’s red-hot data centre market, with the US giant announcing plans to develop a $74 million co-location facility in central Jakarta.

The eight-storey facility, scheduled to open by the second half of 2024, will provide more than 1,600 cabinets and over 5,300 square metres (57,049 square feet) of co-location space when fully built, Equinix said Thursday in a release.

The power capacity of the future data centre was undisclosed, but Equinix said the facility, which will carry the firm’s International Business Exchange brand, will incorporate sustainability into its design, leveraging cool array technology to support economic and environmental goals for organisations in Indonesia.

“Our IBX data centre in Jakarta will add a strategically important, high-growth market to Equinix’s extensive network of interconnected data centres across the world,” said Jeremy Deutsch, president of Equinix Asia Pacific. “Having a presence in Indonesia allows Equinix to provide digital infrastructure that enables local businesses to tap growth opportunities abroad and support global organisations looking to access the expanding Indonesian digital economy.”

Nation’s Digital Goals

Situated in Jakarta’s central business district near major internet exchanges, the new IBX data centre will serve domestic and foreign businesses in line with the government’s digital transformation initiatives.

Indonesian officials are focusing on the digital onboarding of more than 64 million micro, small and medium enterprises across the country, aiming to get 30 million MSMEs to go digital by 2024. Indonesia’s digital economy is on track to surpass $124 billion by the end of 2025, according to a study by Google, consultancy Bain & Co and Singapore state holding firm Temasek.

Major cloud service providers Google, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Alibaba have launched cloud regions in Indonesia. Research advisory Twimbit forecasts the country to become the second-largest public cloud market in Southeast Asia by 2026, trailing only Singapore.

“We look forward to working closely with local authorities, network providers and the broader industry ecosystem players to help unleash Indonesia’s digital potential,” Deutsch said.

Catching the Wave

Equinix has 50 major projects underway across 22 countries. With its entry into Indonesia, the NASDAQ-listed firm is joining a wave of global and regional players establishing data centre operations in Southeast Asia’s biggest country.

In April, US-based EdgeConneX entered the Indonesian market with the acquisition of a local data centre joint venture from Mitsui and Lippo Group’s PT Multipolar Technology. The deal gave EdgeConnex, which is backed by Swedish private equity firm EQT, ownership of a 5-megawatt Jakarta facility with an adjoining site that the firm plans to expand into a 90MW hyperscale data centre campus.

Last month, Stonepeak-backed Digital Edge announced that it had begun construction of a 23MW data centre in Jakarta, marking the Singapore-based startup’s second project in Indonesia.

Regional players Logos, NTT and ST Telemedia Global Data Centres have announced their own data centre projects and acquisitions in Indonesia, with Singapore-based Princeton Digital Group unveiling its third development in the country in August of last year.