TELUS Invests $33 M In Quebec

TELUS today announced an investment of more than $33 million in an Uptime Institute Tier III certified Internet data centre to be located in Laval, Quebec. The state-of-the-art facility will be designed according to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards.

An Internet data centre is a highly secure building that houses extremely powerful computer servers; all of which have redundant power, cooling and security systems. TELUS currently operates eight data centres across Canada, each of which is connected to its national Internet protocol (IP) network and serves as a secure platform for providing Managed Information Technology (IT), Unified Communications and Contact Centre Solutions.

"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 Québec 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 is very proud to be leading the way to a healthier and greener future for our team members and our customers in Quebec, and around the world."

Today's growing reliance on data services has increased the need for more secure and powerful IT infrastructure with professional support. TELUS' newest Internet data centre will be a 44,500 square foot facility with the potential for additional expansion as client demands grow. 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, highly efficient air conditioning units will be used when "free cooling" is unavailable.

TELUS' greenest data centre is a LEED designed facility, which will be independently reviewed by the Canada Green Building Council's rigorous rating system. LEED is an internationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high-performance sustainable buildings. The organization promotes a "whole building" approach to environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environment quality. In Canada, the rating system is administered nationally by the Canada Green Building Council.

The Uptime Institute classification system is a globally recognized measure of best-in-class data centre reliability. TELUS has designed its new facility to be the first Uptime Institute Tier III certified data centre in Québec. The certification will be awarded after Computer Systems Engineering's independent audit at the end of construction. Computer Systems Engineering is the founding organization of the Uptime Institute, an industry provider of vendor-neutral, research-based information on high-density enterprise computing.

Retrofitting of the existing structure has begun and TELUS' team of IT professionals looks forward to hosting new clients at its greenest Internet data centre in 2010. -- www.cnxmarketlink.com

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