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Equinix and Omantel Open New Muscat Data Center
October 2020 by Marc Jacob
Equinix, Inc. and global communications provider Oman Telecommunications Company announced the opening of their new International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data center in Barka, near Muscat—the capital of Oman. Known as MC1, the facility is the first world-class, carrier-neutral hub in Oman where carriers, content providers and cloud providers can colocate critical IT infrastructure.
Strategically located between Asia, Africa and Europe, the new Equinix IBX in Oman will serve as a regional interconnection hub providing ultra-low latency connection points between key global business markets. The new IBX benefits from direct connectivity to strategic cable landing stations (CLS) and subsea cable systems that terminate directly inside the facility, and is expected to provide customers with increased performance and security, along with significant cost savings.
Highlights/Key Facts
• Equinix and Omantel announced in July 2018 that the companies had entered into a joint venture to deliver data center and interconnection services to customers in the Middle East through the development of the new network-dense data center. The resulting site, MC1, is operated by Equinix and includes 23,600+ square feet of colocation space and 725 cabinets. The site has capacity to grow to 2,150+ cabinets with future IBX builds.
• MC1 is Equinix’s first data center in Oman and its fourth in the MENA region.
• MC1 provides customers with direct access to the Equinix Internet Exchange™, creating a regional peering hub for networks, content providers and large enterprises to exchange internet traffic over the world’s largest peering solution.
• Equinix’s 2019-20 Global Tech Trends Survey found over 40% of IT decision-makers in EMEA are prioritizing connecting with new digital ecosystems as part of their organization’s overarching technology strategy.
• With subsea cable systems terminating directly in MC1, the site benefits from continued investments by Omantel in multiple strategic subsea cable systems throughout the world, reaching over 50 countries globally. Omantel currently has investments in more than 20 subsea cable systems and leverages six diverse landing stations in Oman and one in Marseille, France.
• Based on demand and requirements, customers across the Gulf States and wider MENA region can also leverage other Equinix data centers in the region for dual access to content providers, allowing carriers, content providers and cloud providers to leverage interconnection and further build resilience into their IT and network infrastructures.
• According to the latest edition of the Global Interconnection Index (GXI), enterprise consumption of interconnection bandwidth is expected to grow at a 67% CAGR in EMEA by 2022, outpacing other forms of business data exchange, as businesses respond to rapidly growing volumes of data.
