OREANDA-NEWS. January 13, 2016. Classic rock bands have always understood the importance of being “big in Japan,” where fans continue to pack stadiums decades after the original hits exploded over the airwaves.

So does Equinix, who recently completed the acquisition of Bit-isle, Inc.– one of the leading data center service providers in Japan. The acquistion has further strengthened Equinix’s position in the Asia-Pacific, and more specifically the company’s market position in Japan, one of the world’s most demanding markets. But, equally important, it points to the future value of the Japanese market.

With the acquisition of Bit-isle’s six facilities, Japan is now our biggest market in the region, accounting for approximately 40% of Equinix’s data center assets in Asia-Pacific. And, when our new TY5 data center in Tokyo is completed in the first quarter of 2016, we will be even bigger.

The six new data centers provide additional capacity in close proximity to Equinix’s carrier-dense sites. That’s important, because it will enable us to leverage them as we continue to scale our global interconnection platform.

As of January 2016, all the sites in Tokyo are tethered to existing Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX®) data centers for connectivity to network and cloud service providers, business ecosystems and other enterprises within a metropolitan area. Or, to put it another way, this acquisition allows us to create campus-like environments between these facilities.

The net result is an offering that will even more effectively meet the needs of our customers, while also adding strong local expertise to drive Equinix’s success in this very important market.

By the way, those customers include some of Japan’s largest companies. Over 50 cloud service companies, 60 networks and 60 financial services companies, including the most powerful Japanese and global parties, are participating in Equinix’s established cloud, network and financial ecosystem of existing and potential customers and partners. Following the Bit-isle acquisition, we expect to see more new customers sign up to access this rich ecosystem.

As our president and CEO Steve Smith said when the acquisition closed in early December, Equinix has been evaluating how to accelerate our leadership in the Japanese market for several years. And Bit-isle is the answer!

The Bit-isle facilities are adjacent to our carrier-dense sites in downtown Tokyo. It gives us customer-ready capacity, as well as the opportunity to scale Platform Equinix in this increasingly constrained but important global market.

To put it in classic rock terms, we’ve got what it takes to keep Equinix’s most valuable fans happy for the foreseeable future!