IBM has opened a new data center showcasing its latest advancements in energy efficiency, uptime and security which will focus on research and development in Ontario, Canada.

IBM invested US$90m in the data center that will eventually provide key infrastructure and personnel for the IBM Canada Research and Development Centre established earlier in the year.

It said it has used the latest advancements in disaster recovery, business continuity, resiliency, security and efficiency in the modular data center, which currently provides 25,000 sq ft of capacity but can grow out to 100,000 sq ft in segments that can be added as demand requires.

As part of the IBM Canada Research and Development Centre, IBM has committed to installing two IBM Blue Gene/Q supercomputers and develop cloud computing resources to underpin the research initiative.

IBM has not said if this new modular data center currently contains the Blue Gene/Q high performance system but did say the center will become further integrated with the research program as time goes by.

The data center has been set up to provide synchronous replication of data with another facility less than 100km away. IBM currently has 17 data centers in Canada.

The government, which has invested US$15m towards the development program, says computing will be critical to overcome challenges seen by industries such as the financial services, government and retail in Canada today.

IBM President John Lutz said the IBM Canada Leadership Data Centre will provide a foundation “ingrained in best-practices” for the delivery of essential services.

“Canadian organizations are seeing more strategic ways to increase operational efficiencies and position themselves for sustainable growth,” Lutz said.

It will also provide skills, with more than 20 local jobs created as a result of the data center project.

You can see more on the IBM Canada Research and Development Centre in a video produced by IBM here.