Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc., has announced the opening of two additional Internet Data Center facilities in Toronto and Ottawa. Primus is committed to broadening its data center footprint in Canada to meet increasing customer demand for colocation and managed services. In addition to the new centers in Toronto and Ottawa, Primus Business Services is currently scouting two more sites in Canada for development of additional data centers, with an expected opening in early 2008.
The facilities are being opened to meet growing consumer demand. While the Canadian managed services industry is growing at roughly 10 per cent annually, according to IDC Canada, Primus' managed services business surged ahead by 34 per cent in 2006.
The new facilities in Toronto and Ottawa also employ environmentally friendly features and design elements such as high efficiency module UPS systems, high efficiency green transformers, economizers in the cooling system and built-in motion sensors in the lighting system. These features, which reduce hydro power consumption and wasted power by 50 per cent or more, are being requested by more and more customers.
"With our existing facilities in Toronto and Ottawa nearing capacity and our business growing rapidly, Primus is opening two new data centers to meet client demand for our managed hosting and system administration services, said A.J. Byers, Primus Canada, senior vice president, Primus Business Services. "In our effort to strengthen Primus' commitment to environmental sustainability, and manage spending for our customers as the cost and usage of power increases, our new data centers have been designed to reduce power consumption and the impact on the environment.
According to IDC Canada, the industry growth rate for managed services in 2006 was 9.8 per cent and the overall value of the market (based on revenues generated) was $470 million. Primus Business Services' grew by 34 per cent in 2006, more than three times that of the industry.
"Primus' strong growth in 2006 reflects the overall industry demand for managed services, said Mark Schrutt, research manager for outsourcing services, IDC Canada. "There is increasing adoption in the industry for remotely managed services in the areas of security, storage and web hosting and IDC Canada forecasts a 10.25 per cent growth rate in the next five years in Canada. The new 12,000 square foot Toronto data center is located in the downtown core in a secure, unmarked facility. The facility will boast 8,000 square feet of raised floor, and will be completed in two phases. The new 18,000 square foot Ottawa facility will feature a total of 15,000 square feet of raised floor, and will be completed in three phases.
Both new data centers are "class A facilities and offer end-to-end data solutions for businesses of all sizes, including Internet access, hosting, managed system administration and managed security. Primus provides continuous online back up, state-of-the-art security features and storage solutions for mission critical applications and data.
The new data centers offer businesses a secure, safe and reliable location to house their IT infrastructure and are equipped with redundant UPS power and a diesel generator, advanced environmental controls including HVAC, gas fire suppression, biometric access control systems and a multi-homed network for 100 per cent uptime.
"Site resiliency, security and system reliability are vital to our business operations, and after the blackout of August 2003 we wanted to ensure that would not be compromised, said Mark Ripplinger, vice president of Technology and CIO, Canadian Payment Association. "CPA has peace-of-mind with Primus' Data Center's state-of-the-art security solutions and high-availability managed network connectivity, coupled with superior 24/7 customer service.