Equinix, Inc. and EllaLink announced the first-ever high-capacity subsea cable system between Europe and Latin America is in full operation. Delivered by EllaLink to Equinix's International Business Exchange data centers?SP4 in S?o Paulo, LS1 in Lisbon and MD2 in Madrid?the new system provides a 50% increase in network performance between data centers in Brazil, Portugal and Spain when compared to routes that had to previously transit through North America. Reducing latency is a critical factor for content providers, cloud companies and financial firms, where a delay of a few milliseconds can impact the profitability of trading operations. EllaLink selected Equinix due to the company's expertise in providing state-of-the-art subsea infrastructure and its access to dense, rich ecosystems of networks, clouds, financial and IT service providers. Equinix serves as an interconnection partner in more than 40 of the current subsea cable projects. Subsea cables are key to the internet and global connectivity, as 99% of intercontinental traffic crosses a subsea cable with less than 1% of the remaining traffic carried through satellite systems. The global subsea cable market is expected to be valued at $22 billion by 2025, more than doubling from 2019. A significant portion of this growth is in cables connecting Latin America to the rest of the world. Spain and Portugal are important gateways to Brazil and the rest of South America for many European markets. As the capital of Portugal, Lisbon is at the center of industry, government and commerce. It represents an important international connectivity hub, with subsea cables connecting the Iberian Peninsula from Lisbon to Africa and South America. Spain is also an essential hub on the global connectivity map due to its physical location between Africa, Mediterranean Europe and Northern Europe, and its strong cultural connection to Latin America. 5G deployments, the ongoing tech boom and growth in the use of data, telecom subscriptions and internet connections between the two continents are increasing bandwidth capacity requirements. The subsea cable momentum on Platform Equinix has accelerated worldwide as digital transformation has increased globally. Equinix's footprint of more than 230 IBX data centers in 65 global markets across 27 countries provides the metro edge points of presence required to deliver low-latency interconnection for transporting increasing volumes of internet traffic. At Equinix, subsea cable owners/operators can deploy cable landing stations that open gateways between continents and interconnect businesses around the world. According to the fifth annual Equinix Global Interconnection Index, overall interconnection bandwidth, the measure of private connectivity for the transfer of data between organizations, is forecast to reach 21,485+ terabits per second, or 85 zettabytes, per year by 2024, representing a five-year compound annual growth rate of 44%. This growth is aligned with the increased demand for the digital infrastructure needed to bring more businesses online, facilitate electronic integration with partners and supply chains, and reach more people in distributed hybrid work environments.