Yesterday I got an exclusive tour of Equinix’s first Canadian state-of-the-art data centre in Toronto.
My first impression of the 242,000 sq. ft. facility is that’s it very impressive. Equinix is calling the data centre TR2 and they put it near the Toronto downtown core because it can serve several customers in the financial, government, and energy sectors among others. It’s also situation near (about a one KM)Toronto’s Telecom Hotel on 151 Front St. The facility currently sports about 2,500 cabinets and what`s interesting is the cabling is on the ceiling instead of the floor.
Equinix president of the Americas Karl Strohmeyer said one of the reasons the cabling is in the ceiling instead of a raised floor is so that technicians can get quicker access to them. This may be a small aspect of the state-of-the-art data centre but it just shows that Equinix took a clever approach to building this facility.
And, speaking of building. One of the mantras of Equinix is that the channel does not have to build its data centre of the future it should, instead, rent it from Equinix. During the tour I was shown a lounge area, showers, and a snack area and these places are in the TR2 to accommodate technicians from channel partners who might have to stay overnight. Again, it`s a small aspect of the TR2, but something extra that Equinix thought off.
So should the channel rent instead of build their own? Well, I asked Daniel Duffy, the president of CDN Top 100 Solution Provider Mid-Range Computer Group of Toronto. In 2011 Mid-Range took the wraps off not one but two brand new data centres with a total square-footage of 28,600.
Duffy is very proud of his state-of-the-art facility but told me that he is interested in partnering with Equinix after taking the TR2 tour.
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Equinix TR2 is also offering hosted Internet Exchange, Ethernet Exchange and Cloud Exchange connectivity to Telecom Hotel along with more than 106,000 sq. ft. of collocation space. The TR2 data centre can also decrease latency.
TR2 is Canadian but in the grand scheme of things it’s also global for Equinix. Stroymeyer, in an interview with CDN, said European customers who have issues with holding data in the U.S. because of the Patriot Act now have a very good option with the Toronto data centre TR2.
Stroymeyer added that channel partners will play an important role in this global strategy. He said the Equinix channel team will be contacting solution providers around the world and letting them know about the new TR2 offering. This will include Canadian solution providers who might have European customers or customers with European offices.
Currently Equinix has more than 100 data centres location around the world with approximately 10 million sq. ft. of space. This has more than 1,000 interconnections and 135,000 plus cross connects of Tier 1 network routes. Couple that with Equinix 4,500 business ecosystems and you can see what Stroymeyer is getting act here.
This ecosystem enables customers to manage connections to multiple cloud services; without really having to worry about security or vendor lock-in.
Equinix has reach with those 100 plus data centres that are in 15 countries and in 32 major cities across the globe. And, Toronto’s TR2 is just another piece in that global reach for Equinix.
One quick hit before I go. Friend of CDN Marco Nalli has been promoted by Samsung Canada to the position of Senior Manager of Solution Sales for the Enterprise Business Division at Samsung Electronics America. CDN congratulates Marco.