Montreal is great for hyperscale data centers. Stable, green and renewable power, cheap land, and a cool climate. But what are the options for hyperscale customers? With the arrival of AWS, Google, IBM, and Oracle, we see that many different deployment options are available. Depending on the type of operation and the size of the deployment, here are the most common options.
Build it yourself
If you have very special needs and have already built a data center elsewhere, you might be able to build it yourself. Build your plans, get an existing facility or a piece of land from CBRE, and grab a large power input from Hydro-Quebec and you’re off to the races.
It’s a great option if you’re looking into the tens of Megawatts, but it’s not easy. Your company will need a legal structure in Canada and work around all local criteria you need to respect.
Contract the facility management
So you like the idea of having a dedicated facility, but you don’t want to manage the construction logistics. What you could do is out-source the facility management to a third party company. This is what AWS has done in Varennes, a city just outside of Montreal.
With strategic partners such as Montoni and ABB, they build a 30MW facility and are now renting the facility. This seemed to work pretty well as they are rumors that they will build to other identical facilities for a total of 90MWs of dedicated facilities in addition to the few colocation POPs they have in Montreal.
Use data center services
This last option is our favorite: Get a qualified colocation provider to manage everything for you.
We don’t like to combine colocation providers and data center services providers in the same group, but most colocation providers also have wholesale offerings.
The current market has a few offerings that are able of delivering private suites from 30 to 120 days. Dealing with a qualified provider will allow you to have a very simple experience to focus on your needs.
Just let us know the data center specs you are looking for (power, cooling, connectivity, security, and certifications) and we’ll put you in touch with the right provider.