SILICON VALLEY — Bruce Owen, president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and executive vice president of global markets at Equinix, said on the 2nd that the company plans to expand its data center footprint in South Korea.
Owen made the remarks in an interview with The Seoul Economic Daily at The Midway in San Francisco, California, adding that Korea is a very important market for the company and that he is very optimistic about investing there.
Equinix, the world's largest colocation data center operator, runs more than 280 data centers in 77 major cities worldwide, linking scattered infrastructure and networks. In Korea, it operates data centers in Seoul's Sangam district and in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province.
Owen cited global companies such as Samsung and Hyundai Motor as a reason the Korean market matters. "Companies like Samsung can deploy infrastructure around the world, and that brings great benefits to Korea," he said. "Many Korean multinationals use Equinix to build infrastructure not only in Seoul but around the world."
He said the Asia-Pacific region, with its large population and growth potential, will play a bigger role in the data center industry going forward. "The artificial intelligence industry is starting in the United States and China, but over the next decade it will spread to EMEA and Asia-Pacific," Owen said. "We plan to invest aggressively in the Asia-Pacific region in particular." He added that Singapore now lacks room to expand, and that the company is expanding into Johor in Malaysia and Bangkok in Thailand.
