Feb, 2011 : Q9 Opens New Data Center in Greater Toronto Area

📅 February 7, 2011 - Company further solidifies its position with the opening of its sixth data center in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

Q9 Networks Inc., a provider of outsourced data center infrastructure, today announced the opening of its sixth data center in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The company avers that in response to strong demand, two phases comprising two megawatts of critical customer capacity were built, instead of the single phase originally planned. The second phase is scheduled to open later this quarter.

It articulates that the company will invest $125 million in the new 240,000 square foot data center, representing its largest-ever investment in new data center capacity serving the GTA. Located adjacent to the company's existing Brampton data centers, the new facility creates Canada's largest commercial data center campus with capacity in place today to support eight megawatts of critical customer load. Capacity is being built out in phases, with sufficient expansion available on-site to support an ultimate capacity of more than 15 megawatts on the same campus.

The company states that over the last three years, it has nearly doubled its capacity across Canada in direct response to continuously growing customer demand. At the same time, it acquired real estate sufficient to triple current capacity within its existing footprint. By making these strategic investments, the company has ensured its customers can continue to quickly and easily scale their IT infrastructure to support their growth.

According to it, the new facility includes such features as outside air cooling capability to maximize energy efficiency, biometric security systems, multiple connections to the Internet, redundant power, HVAC and fire suppression systems, as well as 7x24 on-site security and technical support teams. With redundant high-speed links connecting it to other data centers of the company in the GTA, customers will have a wide range of business continuity options using two or more data centers of the company.

The company further states that including the new Toronto-area facility, it has nine operational data centers with a tenth data center scheduled to open in April 2011 in Kamloops, British Columbia. Since 2000, investments in data center capacity have totaled more than $335 million. It secured $210 million in new financing in April 2010 and is backed by private equity investment firm, ABRY Partners, which has $4.4 billion of capital under management and is committed to the company's continued expansion.

It mentions that the company designs, builds and operates its data centers to meet the most demanding IT infrastructure requirements, including the increased power and cooling demands of today's high density computing devices. Customers connect to the Internet via its unique network and are protected by its 100 per cent, SLA-backed uptime guarantees on both power and network availability. Customer equipment and data center environmental parameters are monitored 7x24 by the company's Control Center, staffed by experts versed in all aspects of IT and facilities management.

"We are unique in the industry for having an exceptional in-house data center design and build team," said Q9 Chief Executive Officer, Osama Arafat. "This significant competitive advantage allows us to quickly respond to changing customer needs and deliver capacity in very aggressive timeframes, without compromising quality or reliability. In this case, we completed the build-out in less than six short months."