Equinix Opens First Oman Data Center, In Collab With Omantel

Equinix has launched its first data center in Oman and fourth in the Middle East and North Africa region. The company opened the new International Business Exchange data center in Barka, near Muscat, Oman in partnership with global communications provider Oman Telecommunications Company or Omantel.

Equinix’s (EQIX) International Business Exchange data center in Oman benefits from direct connectivity to strategic cable landing stations and subsea cable systems. The data center is expected to provide consumers with better security and performance with significant cost savings. It will link customers with 30+ markets through the Equinix Internet Exchange Platform.

The data center site, called MC1, is spread over 23,600 square feet and has 725 cabinets. It is operated by Equinix and, according to the company, has the capacity to grow to more than 2,150 cabinets.

Kamel Al-Tawil, Equinix’s Managing Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said, “As IP traffic growth continues to accelerate, it is more important than ever that the IP peering community has a scalable, reliable and globally consistent Internet Exchange solution in all markets where they want to peer traffic. We intend to create a hub that will allow drivers of internet traffic to efficiently peer, and expand operations across the world.” (See EQIX stock analysis on TipRanks)

In August, RBC Capital analyst Jonathan Atkin raised his price target for Equinix to $845 from $706 and reiterated a Buy rating following the company’s strong 2Q results with record gross bookings in the Americas. Atkin stated that his new price target is based on the roll-forward and flow-through impacts of his valuation model.

The Street shares Atkin’s optimism with a Strong Buy consensus for Equinix based on 16 Buys and 2 Holds with no Sells. The average analyst price target of $824.24 implies upside potential of about 5.9% in the coming months with shares already rising 33.2% year-to-date.