Looking at the current data center industry boom, combined with your business expertise, what is the methodology behind new partnerships?
Brouckman: Throughout the last ten years, EdgeConneX built out its global data center platform by working with our customers to give them the data center capacity where they want it, when they want it, and at the scale they want it. When we look to international partners, like Chayora, we want to align with talented leadership teams and existing infrastructure that helps us accelerate by providing a ready-made solution with a premium platform that is already well established in the market. The strategic partnership with Chayora enables us to focus on our customer requirements and the complementary offerings of each company to deliver an end-to-end solution for them.
Jones: We have been delighted to bring EdgeConneX in alongside our existing institutional investment partner, Actis. The global reach and recognition that the EdgeConneX track record and approach boasts will help accelerate our expansion. Additionally, the investment deal we have agreed upon is rather exciting, in terms of assured capital availability at ‘China-scale’ to suit the characteristics of our principal market. Our team’s values and those of EdgeConneX are a close fit, which will be immensely valuable as we both take a big step forward together.
Leading APAC, China has a data center market forecasted to triple in size by 2025. What makes this partnership between Chayora and EdgeConnex unique?
Brouckman: As our customers look for solutions in the APAC region, it’s vital that we include a data center presence and team in China. The investment in Chayora provides EdgeConneX customers with an ideal data center partner that can support our digital infrastructure requirements in China. At the same time, the EdgeConneX global platform can support Chinese firms that have international requirements. It’s a win-win for customers, as EdgeConneX and Chayora can provide a comprehensive data center platform domestically in China and internationally in any global market that can support a full spectrum of hyperlocal to hyperscale deployments.
Jones: Through the team we have built at Chayora, we can address all demands to any scale for the world’s largest data center customers. We do that by developing, investing, designing, and then operating data center campuses, not just single data centers. Actually, we do that by thinking about everything around our customer’s business that they may need to be successful.
In order to meet the demands of the end customer, you need land in the right location with resilient power, significant yet also renewable. Additionally, you need to be able to connect to the fiber in whichever country you’re in, and appropriately you have to have significant tax incentives and grants. All of those factors have driven the choices behind the locations we are in today. Currently, we have the capacity to meet the hyperscale ambitions of anyone on the planet, with the standards they require. Not just by providing a data center, but also by being a trusted partner.
China represents the largest and one of the most challenging markets for global digital infrastructure users. What is the latest that we can expect from this partnership to prepare for the market?
Brouckman: One the reasons for establishing this partnership was Chayora’s market-readiness. The company has an existing hyperscale, carrier-neutral data center campus serving Beijing, plus a new campus currently under development in Shanghai. The facilities across the two campuses can jointly scale to more than 200MW IT load with access to 100 percent renewable energy. Now, Chayora also has the ability to expand into other leading Chinese markets. Chayora holds all relevant licenses to operate and connect its data centers, as well as provide cloud services access to 100 percent renewable energy.
Jones: The Shanghai data campus, slated to be ready for service by Q4 2022, will only build upon our company’s whole reason for being—to enable customers to participate efficiently and effectively in the Chinese digital economy. We anticipate having at least one more campus of the equivalent size in Shanghai, and maybe two more in the next three to five years. We’re also identifying a major site in the South between Shenzhen and Guangzhou, which will be somewhere between Shanghai and Tianjin in scale terms.
