Acquisitions - Additional Information (Detail)	1 Months Ended		12 Months Ended			12 Months Ended					12 Months Ended		12 Months Ended						12 Months Ended								12 Months Ended						12 Months Ended
	Aug. 31, 2012 Center	Apr. 30, 2011	Dec. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2010	Dec. 31, 2012 Equinix Equity Awards [Member]	Dec. 31, 2010 Minimum [Member]	Dec. 31, 2010 Maximum [Member]	Dec. 31, 2012 Asia Tone Acquisition [Member] USD ($)	Jul. 03, 2012 Asia Tone Acquisition [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 Asia Tone Acquisition [Member] Hong Kong Center	Dec. 31, 2012 Asia Tone Acquisition [Member] Shanghai Center	Dec. 31, 2012 Asia Tone Acquisition [Member] Singapore Center	Dec. 31, 2012 Asia Tone [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 Ancotel Acquisition [Member] USD ($)	Jul. 02, 2012 Ancotel Acquisition [Member] USD ($)	Jul. 02, 2012 Ancotel Acquisition [Member] Hong Kong	Jul. 02, 2012 Ancotel Acquisition [Member] Frankfurt Germany Center	Jul. 02, 2012 Ancotel Acquisition [Member] London	Dec. 31, 2011 ALOG [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2010 Switch and Data Acquisition [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2009 Switch and Data Acquisition [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 Switch and Data Acquisition [Member] USD ($)	Apr. 30, 2010 Switch and Data Acquisition [Member] USD ($) Center	Dec. 31, 2010 Switch and Data Acquisition [Member] Stock-electing share [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2010 Switch and Data Acquisition [Member] Cash-electing share [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2010 Switch and Data Acquisition [Member] Non-electing share [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 ALOG Acquisition [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 ALOG Acquisition [Member] USD ($) Center	Dec. 31, 2012 ALOG Acquisition [Member] BRL	Apr. 30, 2011 ALOG Acquisition [Member] USD ($)	Apr. 30, 2011 ALOG Acquisition [Member] BRL	Nov. 08, 2012 E-Hosting DataFort FZ, LLC [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 Riverwood [Member]
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Cash consideration for acquisition								$ 202,338,000	$ 230,500,000						$ 85,714,000							$ 113,289,000	$ 699,904,000					$ 41,954,000		$ 51,723,000	82,194,000	$ 22,918,000
Capital stock acquired, percentage															100.00%								100.00%							90.00%	90.00%	100.00%
Net cash consideration									202,445,000														134,007,000
Data center	16									6	6	6					1						34					3	3
Disaster recovery center										1	1	1
Data center under construction	9										1
Acquisition costs													4,887,000	1,365,000						11,094,000	4,091,000						2,307,000
Discount rate reflects assets in future			15.60%	14.00%		8.25%	11.50%						14.40%	12.80%						8.60%
Revenues													23,083,000	11,494,000					46,870,000	152,961,000
Net income (loss) from acquisition													1,604,000	(3,281,000)					(4,605,000)	(1,147,000)
Edge nodes																1		1
Acquisition date		Apr. 25, 2011
Indirect controlling interest																														53.00%	53.00%
Acquisition cost payable by Zion																												17,571,000	36,000,000
Business acquisition, contingent consideration																												$ 9,312,000	19,080,000
Redeemable non-controlling interests, disclosure					Beginning in April 2014 and ending in May 2016, Equinix will have the right to purchase all of Riverwood's interest in ALOG at a price equal to the greater of (i) its then current fair market value and (ii) a net purchase price that implies a compounded internal rate of return in U.S. dollars ("IRR") for Riverwood's investment of 12%. If Equinix exercises its right to purchase Riverwood's shares, Equinix also																												Also beginning in April 2014 and ending in May 2016, Riverwood will have the right to require Equinix to purchase all of Riverwood's interests in ALOG at a price equal to the greater of (i) its then current fair market value and (ii) a net purchase price that implies an IRR for Riverwood's investment of 8%, declining over time. If Riverwood exercises its right to require Equinix
IRR on net purchase price percentage																																	12.00%
Consideration transferred description				Under the final terms of the Switch and Data Acquisition, each stock-electing share received 0.19409 shares of Equinix common stock, each cash-electing share received $19.06 in cash, and each non-electing share received 0.11321688 shares of Equinix common stock and $7.94189104 in cash, in each case subject to the terms of the merger agreement.
Acquisition share price																				$ 7.94189104				$ 0.19409	$ 19.06	$ 0.11321688