MONTREAL – TELUS on Wednesday announced it was investing $33 million in an eco-friendly IT data centre in Laval. The facility will be an Uptime Institute Tier III certified Internet data centre that will be designed according to the Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) standard.
The centre will house extremely powerful computer services with redundant power, cooling and security systems.
TELUS currently operates eight data centres across Canada, which are connected to the company’s national Internet protocol (IP) network.
“Our customers, whether they serve the health, financial or transportation sector, rely on TELUS’ leading IT team to protect their critical information every day,” said Karen Radford, president of TELUS Quebec and TELUS Partner Solutions. “This investment in Quebec will support our clients’ growing need for more powerful IT infrastructure while having one of the lowest carbon footprints of all data centres in North America.”
TELUS said in a media release that today’s growing reliance on data services has increased the need for more secure and powerful IT infrastructure with professional support.
The data centre in Laval will be 44,500 square feet with the potential for expansion. It will be connected to six mega-volt-amps of power, equivalent to the needs of more than 5,000 homes.
To counter the heat generated by the computer servers, its high density power design and efficient heat exchange system will turn Quebec’s cold climate into “free cooling” during two-thirds of the year. Large air conditioning units will be used when “free cooling” is unavailable.
Retrofitting of the existing structure has begun, and the new facility is expected to open in 2010.
