Canadian telecom and data center service provider Bell announced construction of a new data center in the National Capital Region. (Ottawa and the surrounding area)

Three customers already signed long-term contracts to lease space in the future facility, with total contract worth of CA$100m. Scheduled to launch late next year, this will be the sixth data center in Bell's national network, providing colocation, managed hosting and cloud-based services, such as Software-as-a-Service and hosted unified communications.

St├®phane Boisvert, president of Bell Business Markets, said the National Capital market, with a high concentration of large technology companies and government offices, was seeing a constrained supply of data center space.

"This facility will help meet the demand for top-tier data hosting with an exceptionally green, cost-effective facility that supports the development of world-class technology solutions and provides high-speed access to one of Canada's leading cloud providers," he said.

The site will include an 82,000-sq-ft building, housing 50,000 sq ft of data center floor.

It was designed to meet LEED Gold standards of the US Green Building Council and will be powered by hydro-electric power.