Savvis to Add Data Center in Toronto

Yesterday was a big day for CenturyLink's cloud computing business. While CenturyLink was busy unveiling its acquisition of Tier 3, the company's Savvis cloud unit was announcing some expansion of its own.

Savvis, which CenturyLink bought back in 2011, announced plans Tuesday to expand its presence in Canada with the launch of a new data center in the Toronto region in mid-2014. The 100,000-square-foot TR3 data center will support up to five megawatts of IT load.

"Toronto holds international status as a leading center of business across industries that rely on secure, agile IT services to grow and innovate," said Ash Mathur, regional vice president and country manager for Savvis' Canadian operations. "This data center signifies our commitment to powering business in Canada through world-class infrastructure services, complemented by advanced solutions for big data, business applications, content management and e-commerce initiatives for Canadian and global organizations."

Within five years, 70 percent of Canadian IT leaders plan to outsource a majority of their infrastructure to colocation, managed hosting and cloud services, according to a recent survey conducted by international research firm Vanson Bourne for Savvis. The TR3 data center – Savvis' second in the Toronto region and fourth in Canada – will enable businesses to deploy agile hybrid solutions that access these outsourcing services through Savvis.

"As we expand our global data center footprint, experience shows our clients expect more than one type of infrastructure service," said David Meredith, senior vice president and general manager, Savvis. "We have designed a broad portfolio to drive greater business value through carrier diversity, interconnectivity and our Savvis ClientConnect service, which lets organizations promote services, drive efficiencies and generate new opportunities with others inside the data center ecosystem."

Savvis operates 55 data centers worldwide, with more than 2.4 million square feet of gross raised floor space throughout North America, Europe and Asia.