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Primus Canada Expands GTA Data Centre Footprint

primus [1]Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc. [1], a wholly owned subsidiary of Primus Telecommunications Group, Incorporated, has announced that construction has begun on a new high density Data Centre facility in Markham to meet the spiking demand among GTA businesses for mission critical and business continuity solutions. This newest member of Primus Canada’s national footprint of 8 data centres is designed to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, will be certified by the Uptime Institute as a Tier III site, and will offer advanced Disaster Recovery features.

The new Toronto Data Centre enhances the scale of Primus Canada’s IT management services and represents significant progress in the transformation of the company into a full-service, next-generation, information and communications technology provider. This investment is further evidence that Primus Canada is committed to growth and expansion in data centre capabilities as part of a total PTGi strategy.  The Toronto-based management team is working on delivering enhanced enterprise-quality IT facilities to key metropolitan cities all across Canada.

“Through our continuing national expansion program, we now have one of the largest data centre footprints in the country.  Our Primus Business Services [2] team has demonstrated its expertise and ongoing execution capabilities to be considered a data centre leader for the business market across Canada,” says Andrew Day, CEO of Primus Canada.   “We are designing and constructing state-of-the-art Tier III facilities that aim to meet our customer’s managed services and cloud platform requirements well into the future.”

The first phase of this 30,000 square foot GTA Data Centre initiative will be a 7,500 square foot pod that is built to LEED standards for environmental sustainability.  The Data Centre will include an innovative HVAC system that leverages free-air cooling and optimized air distribution to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in energy utilization over their current facility designs, and effectively eliminate the water usage and waste resulting from the HVAC plant that is used in most data centre designs today. As a result, companies that elect to host their IT services in the Primus Canada Data Centre can better meet targets for environmental sustainability, which is quickly growing in importance for high-end customers.

“We have seen tremendous growth in demand for our data centre services, and expect double digit increases in FCEs despite the current economic volatility. Today, businesses trying to stretch their capital dollars are quickly realizing the benefits of data centre hosting services,” said AJ Byers, Executive Vice-President of Primus Business Services. “We have been servicing data centre needs across Canada for more than 10 years now, and we recognize that businesses need higher density facilities that meet the highest levels of certification for service availability.  We believe that we are a perfect match to address the ongoing environmental challenges that surround mission critical computing facilities.”

To ensure clients’ data is available to them when needed, the new facility will be certified to the Uptime Institute’s Tier III Site specifications. To achieve this certification, the site must have multiple independent distribution paths serving the IT equipment, all IT equipment must be dual-powered and fully compatible with the topology of a site’s architecture and include concurrently maintainable site infrastructure guaranteeing the highest standards for service availability in the Canadian data centre market.

Although Disaster Recovery is a growing concern of businesses, a recent survey by the AFCOM, the world’s leading data center association, found that more than 15 per cent of all data centres have no plan for business continuity or disaster recovery. Primus’ Data Centres can assist businesses in safeguarding their sensitive data as they are housed in a highly secure infrastructure, with full server and generator backup in case of a power outage, and protection against environmental emergencies with advanced fire and cooling protection; so invaluable data, such as customer information and financial records, remain safe at all times.

Primus Canada’s Data Centre services offered by Primus Business Services enable businesses to see the following benefits: