Bevan Slattery (SUB.CO)
Equinix is set to establish subsea fibre cable infrastructure group SUB.CO's Oman Australia Cable (OAC), linking the data centre operator's International Business Exchange (IBX) facilities in Perth and Muscat, Oman.
The data centres in question include Equinix's PE2 facility in Perth and MC1 in Muscat, to offer increased security and diverse network entry points for building out OAC’s core network.
SUB.CO, which was founded by Australian entrepreneur Bevan Slattery, previously announced the OAC had an initial target completion date of December 2021. However, it is now expected to be finished by the second quarter of 2022.
When complete, Equinix claims it will be the only data centre operator with an express cable between the two countries.
Equinix said it considers Perth to be an important gateway for subsea cables and serves a strategic role of offering geographic diversity compared to Sydney and eastern Australia.
Credit: Equinix "Perth is an important growth market for Equinix in Australia and a strategic interconnection point into Asia and now MENA [the Middle East and North Africa] thanks to the OAC,” said Guy Danskine, managing director at Equinix Australia.
“We are thrilled to provide our enterprise customers and partners in Australia even greater access to the growing network of global subsea cables, which can give them increased opportunities to expand internationally and compete in today’s fast-growing digital economy.”
Furthermore, Muscat is also considered by the data centre operator to be strategically located between Asia, Africa and Europe, acting as a regional interconnection hub between these markets.
"Building OAC was very important for us, as a key new route to mitigate against the risks inherent in systems that traverse from Asia to EMEA [Europe, the Middle East and Africa] via the Malacca Strait,” Slattery said.
“Working with Equinix is another key component of ensuring OAC’s success, given their global capabilities and flexible approach."
At the start of the year, Australian SUB.CO subsidiary APX awarded Data Exchange Networks a $1.1 million contract to build a landing station.
That deal saw DXN design, prefabricate, build and install the fully engineered station and supply the modules at a facility in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, which is 2,750 kilometres northwest of Perth.
