Founded in 2009, EdgeConneX began its journey with a focus on driving innovation in both infrastructure and sustainability and keeping the customer and their needs at the heart of every decision they make. Today, they have headquarters in Northern Virginia, Amsterdam, and Singapore, with over 90 data centers sustainability built or in development across Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, North America, and South America.
Let’s take a look at their journey so far and what lies ahead for EdgeConneX.
Chapter 1
Filling a Niche by Pioneering the Edge
From its inception, EdgeConneX has been known for two things: letting customer needs take the reins and bucking trends and innovating as necessary to meet those needs. Initially formed to solve a specific challenge that content and cloud providers were facing—the need to place content, compute, and storage much closer to end users in order to reduce latency and improve performance—EdgeConneX set out to deliver a faster, customer-driven alternative to wholesale data center models. Instead of building large facilities first and waiting for demand, EdgeConneX helped build the edge by partnering with its service provider customers to deploy smaller, build-to-suit data centers exactly where latency, content delivery, and network performance demanded them. The business focused on speed, flexibility, and proximity to end users, which enabled rapid deployment in underserved and secondary markets and the formation of new peering hubs at the Edge. Over the first ten years of operations, this customer-driven, edge-first approach scaled globally, establishing EdgeConneX as a key enabler of low-latency digital services and a bridge between centralized cloud infrastructure and the edge. Meanwhile, the patented EdgeOS®—another key innovation that enabled unmanned and remotely managed data centers was a next-generation data center operating system designed to support the company’s highly distributed, global edge data center footprint.
Chapter 2
Acquisition by EQT Provides Access to Capital, Power, and Other Expansion-Supporting Resources
With EdgeConneX’s reputation and credibility in the market, as well as its strength in providing customers with the type of infrastructure they need where, when, and how they need it most, EQT Infrastructure saw potential for a partnership that would catapult both companies into next-level growth—and they acquired EdgeConneX in 2020. In addition to giving EdgeConneX access to capital—one of the biggest enablers of expansion in the current climate—this acquisition also gave EdgeConneX access to other EQT portfolio companies, including those in power, capacity, and connectivity. Over the last five years, with EQT’s support, the EdgeConneX footprint has not only expanded globally but also scaled in terms of the customers and deployments it supports with hyperscale campuses built out across all three continents.
Chapter 3
Enabling Both Local and Global Transformation at Scale
Drawing on both a differentiated offering (beyond simply capital) and extensive experience in serving the world’s largest and most successful network, content, cloud, and now AI companies, EdgeConneX and EQT immediately began to expand and invest in new projects and initiatives. For instance, to expand operations in India—one of the most significant sources of AI demand worldwide—EdgeConneX formed a joint venture with Adani Enterprises, the flagship company of an Indian multinational conglomerate. Likewise, EdgeConneX invested strategically in China-based data center provider Chayora, acquired data centers in Israel and Indonesia, and opened new data centers in both new and existing EdgeConneX markets. Sustainability has also—and always—been top of mind, and the partnership continually invests in technology and solutions that help involved companies and surrounding communities meet their sustainability goals.
The Next Chapter: A Race to Scale
Both organic and nonorganic growth have characterized the last five years, but either way, the future of the EdgeConneX and EQT partnership is exceptionally bright. Looking forward to the AI era, the companies are well-positioned for success by continuing to solve the customers’ challenges and fulfill their needs. That entails providing the capital, power, connectivity, and capacity to scale in both density and size to meet future needs for AI factories and inference sites. Through their shared resources, reputations, and values, these two powerhouses can continue to deliver digital infrastructure where it is most needed—into local markets and across the world—and, when required, accelerate the time to deliver capacity to customers. Quality delivery of AI and other high-performance compute content requires a rapid response, global expertise, and a focus on delivering high-capacity, sustainable data center solutions worldwide. Together, these companies have it all, which positions EQT and EdgeConneX extremely well in the global AI Race to Scale. In the story that follows, InterGlobix Magazine Editor-in-Chief Jasmine Bedi sits down for one-to-one interviews with EQT Partner Jan Vesely and EdgeConneX CEO Randy Brouckman to learn more about how the EQT and EdgeConneX partnership is gearing up for AI and empowering the transition from hyperlocal to hyperscale. EdgeConneX Chief Marketing and Product Officer Phillip Marangella and Chief Revenue Officer Don MacNeil also shed light on the EdgeConneX product positioning, customer profile, go-to-market approaches, and key community initiatives. In a concluding gatefold, we also take a closer look at some of the innovative partnerships and sustainability efforts that have defined the company to date.
