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Equinix today announced the completion of phase 2 of its second International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in Hong Kong (HK2), which represents a US$48.9 million investment.

Equinix now operates four data centers in Hong Kong: HK1 IBX (2,020 cabinets), HK2 IBX (1,450 cabinets) and two newly acquired data centers from Asia Tone, a Hong Kong-based data center services provider.

Also located in Tsuen Wan in the New Territories, Hong Kong, phase 2 of HK2 adds 1,000 cabinets to the data center. Together with phase 1 of HK2 launched in November 2011, HK2 IBX now provides a total capacity to 1,450 cabinets, and brings the total investment amount of HK2 to US$72 million.

HK2 IBX data center provides co-location, interconnection and peering and direct cross connect between networks: cloud, content, enterprise, financial services and network ecosystems), which form a "cloud-connected enterprise," according to Samuel Lee (pictured, left), president, Equinix Asia Pacific.

In Hong Kong, Equinix currently serves financial services companies like IRESS, and cloud service providers including BrightHost and Carpathia Hosting.

According to research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, the demand for data center services in Hong Kong will grow by a compound annual growth rate of 9.8 percent from 2009 to 2015. It also estimated that the financial services, trading and logistics, IT, telecoms, and content development and media industries account for more than 84% of the total demand for data center space in Hong Kong. 

According to Alex Tam (pictured, right), managing director of Equinix Greater China, both HK1 and HK2 IBX data centers were converted from industrial buildings in Hong Kong.

"The HK2 IBX data center is a revitalization of an industrial building, which perfectly aligns with the data center initiatives recently announced by Hong Kong SAR Government," said Tam.

Together with the six data centers acquired from Asia Tone, Equinix now operates a total of 105 data centers worldwide.

According Lee, Equinix is committed to invest US$700-800 million in data center expansion activities globally in 2012.

To address the growing demand for data center services in APAC, Equinix also this month announced the expansion of its second IBX data center (SG2) in Singapore. Last year Equinix opened three new IBXs in Hong Kong, Sydney and Tokyo.