COLO-D: an emerging force in the Montreal datacenter market

Transcription

1 IMPACT REPORT COLO-D: an emerging force in the Montreal datacenter market DECEMBER BY KELLY MORGAN New provider COLO-D launched its first facility in near Montreal in fall Drummondville, about an hour's drive northeast of Montreal, was not an obvious location for a new facility by a new provider. However, the firm noted that the site was well located between Montreal and Quebec and could supply disaster-recovery space for either market, as well as production facilities for those that don't need to be next door to their servers. The bet has turned out to be a good one. The facility has filled up steadily, and COLO- D recently announced construction of a second datacenter this time at a site in Montreal. The 451 Take Montreal and Quebec are relatively small MTDC markets but with advantages that should make them larger ones. They have the cheapest power in Canada, much of which is 'green' hydroelectric. The climate is mostly cool and dry, ideal for airside economization, thus saving on cooling costs. Fiber in Montreal is located in ducts owned by the government, so it is relatively easy to obtain dark fiber connections to datacenters. Connectivity into the US is plentiful as well. There have been concerns in the past about the independence movement and the need to have bilingual sales staff and bilingual contracts, although that is not always required now. Still, for many customers, the advantages far outweigh these former concerns. As the market gains momentum, COLO-D should be one of the main providers to benefit.

2 Context The president and CEO of COLO-D, Patrick David, a Quebec native, was one of the leaders of colocation firm Canix (sold to Cologix). He selected Drummondville as the site for his next project because of its location between Montreal and Quebec, as well as an improved seismic rating when compared to other major centers in Quebec. Montreal is roughly 60 miles away and Quebec just over 90 miles. The firm believes the latency of less than 2ms to either city is ideal for active-active synchronous replication. The Drummondville datacenter facility was formerly operated by Disque Americ (former CD and DVD producer). COLO-D launched there in November A consortium composed of National Bank Financial, Fonds de solidarité FTQ and W Investments funded the $35m investment. COLO-D provides wholesale and retail colocation services that include cabinets, private cages and datacenter suites, and interconnection services. It has staff on-site 24/7 to provide remote hands services. The provider has seen demand from local enterprises, but with about 11ms of latency to New York (Manhattan), Asian and European firms that want access to the US East Coast but are nervous about the US Patriot Act have also been driving take-up. Key verticals have been financial services, cloud providers, government and the gaming industry. Facilities The 115,000-gross-square-foot building has 60,000 square feet of operational space built out, with about 7.8MW of redundant customer power (14MW total). The firm is building a substation that will allow it to provide up to 20MW of customer power, and has space to build another building on its land. The facility's design for its electrical and mechanical infrastructure meets the requirements for a concurrently maintainable facility with N+1 redundancy, and the facility received Tier III certification for its design documentation by The Uptime Institute (an independent division of the 451 Group). The site's power infrastructure features an A-B-C design that gives customers the option of A-B feeds, B-C feeds, or A-C feeds. Customers can mix the feeds to various racks to provide as much diversity as possible. The UPS rooms are separate, and all the electrical distribution is color-coded. The equipment space is isolated PDUs are in a corridor so equipment is not on the raised-floor leasable space and can be maintained without accessing the client's IT floor. All power is 100% hydroelectric, and it is possible to get

3 tax advantages of up to 50% on power costs on what is already the cheapest power in Canada. Part of the facility has a mezzanine, and part doesn't, so the firm can build to a variety of ceiling heights or use the high ceiling in certain rooms to evacuate heat if a higher-density solution is needed. It has a unique raised-floor system with power in one section of the floor and air moving through another, so that if a tile is lifted to access power cables, it won't affect airflow in the rest of the room. COLO-D has network connectivity from top-tier ISPs and has the largest Bell Canada PoP on private land in Canada in its facility. It has provided 800Gig of connectivity for one customer, so there is plenty of network capacity to the site. The Bell Canada fiber lines also take diverse paths to two separate central offices, and the building has separate, redundant meet-me rooms. The facility offers client work and break areas, caged loading docks and storage facilities. There is also plenty of business-continuity desk space that has been popular. No keys are required anywhere, with entry to racks made using key cards that allow for access to be controlled and tracked. Customers have said they like having on-site engineering staff present as well. COLO-D's new facility, called COLO-D2, will be on the south shore of Montreal in Longueuil, and is expected to launch in June At full build, it will offer 30MW of power in 150,000 gross square feet. It will open with 5MW of capacity in its initial phase. COLO-D confirmed that 'a major Canadian public company' has signed up to be an anchor tenant. Competition Cologix and Cogeco are key competitors in Montreal, particularly Cogeco since it opened a new facility in the market this fall. Bell Canada has a large presence in Montreal as well. However, Cogeco and Bell Canada also offer managed and cloud services that could potentially compete with those of service provider customers, so COLO-D may have an advantage when competing for them. ORICOM INTERNET and 4Degrees/Videotron are competitors in Quebec. SWOT Analysis

4 Strengths COLO-D's on-site engineering and operations team is appealing to customers. Uptime certification of its design, the success of its first site and the announcement of a second facility have also boosted its credibility as a provider that can grow as needed. Weaknesses Only having one datacenter was a weakness, particularly since it was a good distance outside of the city. Opening a new facility in Montreal to provide diversity and target those that want equipment to stay in town should help. We expect the firm to expand beyond Montreal eventually as well. Opportunities Montreal is an under-appreciated wholesale location, and COLO-D has an advantage in being one of the first there to offer large blocks of space/power. It should be able to build its brand recognition and operational reputation, then expand or merge with another provider to target other areas in Canada. Threats None of the big US providers with low cost of capital and economies of scale have built in Montreal or Quebec yet. They may well be assessing the market now. There could be plenty of new entrants for the firm to compete with in the next two years. Kelly Morgan Research Director, Multi-Tenant Datacenters - NA M&A ACTIVITY BY SECTOR M&A ACTIVITY BY ACQUIRER FIGURES SHOWN INDICATE NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS COMPANY MENTIONS (PRIMARY) COLO-D COMPANY MENTIONS (OTHER) 4Degrees Bell Canada Canix Cogeco Cologix Disque Americ National Bank Financial ORICOM INTERNET Videotron W Investments Fonds de solidarite FTQ CHANNELS Multi-Tenant Datacenter SECTORS

5 All / Data centers & facilities / Location, space & real estate