OREANDA-NEWS. June 20, 2016. Equinix entered the highly digitized and growing Swedish market for the first time this year with its acquisition of TelecityGroup, which added three data centers in Stockholm to our global platform. We met with Niclas Sanfridsson, Equinix Sweden’s Managing Director and an industry veteran, to talk about how Equinix plans to capitalize on its new presence in one of the world’s most connected economies.

Can you tell us something about the local landscape?

Sweden has been one of Europe’s strongest-performing economies in recent years, and Stockholm has emerged as a thriving hub for international business. It’s now the location of choice for half of the Forbes Global 2000 companies in the Nordic region. And because it’s fostered tech unicorns such as Spotify, King and Klarna, Stockholm has a world-renowned start-up scene – one that even rivals Silicon Valley. Equinix has had its eye on the Swedish market for some time, and thanks to the acquisition of TelecityGroup, we now have a strong presence here with the three Stockholm data centers.

What will Equinix bring to this already growing economy?

Equinix offers lots of ways for companies to expand their interconnection capabilities, and that’s really become critical for growth. Companies these days need to be able to connect their end users to anyone, anywhere, at any time, on whatever device they choose, and we are built to help them do that. Our three data centers host a business ecosystem with more than 210 companies. This is an active community of potential partners and service providers who can offer interconnection solutions or help customers innovate.

We also have new and more effective ways to help people connect and cooperate. For instance, they can privately connect inside our data centers with cross-connects. Or our Cloud Exchange enables them to directly connect to several cloud providers simultaneously from a single physical port. And in today’s interconnected era, organizations must handle ever-increasing streams of data. We’ve devised a strategy called the Interconnection Oriented Architecture that can help organizations adapt their IT and leverage digital transformation to fit this new reality.

Perhaps most importantly, we can now offer Swedish companies access to our global interconnection platform. We operate 145 data centers on five continents, so companies in Sweden can expand their reach to customers in 40 markets around the world. 

Does the arrival of Equinix have any implications for the Swedish colocation industry?

Definitely, and you’re probably not surprised that we think it’s good news. As a colocation market, there is no question that Sweden stands to gain from the new level of interconnection that Equinix brings. The close proximity to our global interconnection platform will reduce latency and congestion for companies operating facilities throughout Sweden. This upgrade in IT infrastructure is vital for Sweden to remain an attractive location for colocating infrastructure.