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As the digital landscape evolves, the data center industry is poised to capitalize on its next growth phase, and Canada’s data centers are no exception. Recently, we sat down with Sean Maskell, President and General Manager for Cologix Canada, to discuss how far the industry has come, what’s paving the way for growth and how Cologix is readying itself for a dynamic future.
Q: How have Canada’s data centers evolved since Cologix first entered the market in 2011, and how is Cologix preparing for the future?
A: As Cologix established its Canadian presence 13 years ago, the focus was on finding highly connected locations − the major crossroads of interconnection − as the foundational strategy for our Canadian presence. As a first phase, we sourced those facilities and carrier hotels that served as the connection hubs for telecommunications networks and data exchanges. By doing so, Cologix locked in a meaningful presence across Canada and its three largest metros − Vancouver, Toronto and Montréal.
The downside to these traditional carrier hotel locations was the limited space and power to expand. Those buildings weren’t designed for the next wave of highly connected data center demand we saw coming. This hurdle led Cologix into phase two, developing connection hub locations tied back to these massively connected facilities using dark fiber and active interconnection infrastructure. As Cologix could now offer these connection hubs extensively across our Canadian footprint, we were well-positioned for the next phase of digital edge and the growing use of cloud-based services.
As more enterprises adopted cloud-based services for their businesses, this accelerated industry change yet again. It also drove hyperscale companies to search for large-scale facilities with high-capacity, low-latency routes tied directly to the carrier hotel locations. This strategy places hyperscale service offerings closer to the edge for improved performance and increased enterprise user experience.
This industry evolution opened the door for Cologix to enter phase three. This phase meant developing colocation data centers capable of meeting demanding power and cooling needs while also ensuring future scalability. These facilities became our ScalelogixSM data centers − highly customizable and interconnected hyperscale edge data centers built at scale and connected to our carrier hotels and connection hubs. Through strategic acquisitions such as ColoD, along with our purpose-built hyperscale edge facilities like MTL8 in Montréal, plus expansions of existing facilities in our three Canadian markets, we could offer hyperscale solutions to providers like AWS, Microsoft and Oracle to deploy their cloud supporting infrastructure and critical cloud onramps.
Q: How have Cologix’s solutions met the evolving needs of businesses in Canada?
A: Cologix was a pioneer in providing network-neutral interconnection and colocation solutions that significantly improved scalability for companies in the Canadian market. Our ecosystem and interconnection offerings are major advantages we provide with our constantly expanding footprint across Canada.
Our many cloud onramps provide significant benefits to businesses locating within a Cologix facility across Canada. We offer our customers cloud adjacency, reduced latency, increased security and reduced network costs.
Additionally, the launch of Cologix Access Marketplace has helped to accelerate connectivity and simplified data exchange. By using software-defined networking (SDN), customers can connect to multiple clouds on-demand, through a single connection, in minutes. This greatly reduces the workload and costs associated with multicloud deployments.
Our unique approach creates a valuable ecosystem of carriers, service providers, financial customers, government clients and many other enterprises. We provide an environment where businesses mutually benefit from their proximity and interconnection to each other, generating new value and revenue streams to drive growth and success together.
Q: How have the unique strengths of your Canadian metros helped spur growth for the industry?
A: By concentrating on strategic expansions in key urban centers – Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver – we have positioned ourselves to be where our customers are going.
Montréal has become particularly enticing for hyperscalers and enterprises, thanks to its cost-effective power solutions and strong commitments to sustainability. Our Montreal data centers have a very green story to tell, helping our customers align with their sustainability goals.
Toronto is the hub of all things financial across Canada and our facilities there appeal to verticals such as banking, professional services and managed service providers. Toronto offers direct access to Canada’s most connected carrier hotel and centralized cloud on-ramps. Our Toronto customers are just a cross connect away from carriers, service providers and cloud access points such as AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
Vancouver has become one of our fastest growing markets over the last five years, driven by scaling operations, sovereign locations, connectivity and the rising demand for low latency cloud. These industry-leading data centers and highly skilled staff offer a unique experience on the West Coast of Canada.
Q: What will the next phase of growth look like for Cologix?
A: With the rapid rise of new technologies, it’s a whole new world opening up, filled with opportunities for Canada’s market. We’ll stay true to what we’ve done, with interconnection as the cornerstone of our business, but we’ll also stay a step ahead of where our customers need to be.
We are adding AI into our portfolio. This does not change our business fundamentally, but it certainly complements the strong foundation and offering that we’ve built across Canada. An example of that is our recently announced collaboration with Consensus Core to launch a new NVIDIA-powered GPU as a Service (GPUaaS) offering in Canada. This will transform our MTL10 ScalelogixSM data center into a hub for Consensus Core’s high-performance AI workloads. By continuing our growth in key markets, building on the strength of our ecosystem, enhancing partnerships with existing customers and evolving our solution offerings, including AI-ready facilities, we’ll be ready for whatever is next.
