Former Internet outsourcing giant Exodus Communications Inc. sold its sole Canadian data centre on Tuesday to Q9 Networks Inc., a Toronto-based provider of managed Internet infrastructure services.
It was only two years ago that Santa Clara, Calif.-based Exodus was hosting Q9's servers, but the economic slide, poor planning and the dot-com collapse proved to be too much for the company. Last December, U.K.-based Cable & Wireless PLC announced it had purchased 26 of Exodus' 44 data centres, but left the facility in Brampton, Ont., off its list, saying Canada wasn't part of its focus.
Q9 now owns the 160,000-sq.ft. hosting facility along with its entire existing technology infrastructure. The company currently operates a 20,000-sq.ft. location in downtown Toronto that was opened last year.
Q9 will use the facility to offer its customers an array of managed services including collocation, Web hosting and disaster recovery. And Q9 says it will waste little time in getting acquainted with its new facility.
"We have to do a few modifications to integrate it with our networks. We hope to have it up and operational with new clients in a couple of weeks," said Osama Arafat, CEO of Q9 Networks in Toronto. He added that the company "jumped" at the opportunity to buy Exodus, as its current facility was reaching maximum capacity.
Q9 is also building a facility in Calgary that is slated to open later this summer, and it plans to expand into Montreal and Ottawa at dates yet to be determined. While Arafat said there was no animosity between Q9 and the former Exodus, one analyst doesn't agree.
"There probably was some professional animosity there. If you look at the two companies and compare and contrast them, Exodus was this massive global player at one point in time and Q9, that was much more focused and smaller, didn't have access to the same kind of capital," said Mark Quigley, research director for the Yankee Group in Canada in Ottawa.
However, the politics of business aside, Quigley said that this deal was simply too good for Q9 not to take as it now inherits a fully functional operations centre without having to go through the real estate and construction headaches. And, it falls in line with the expansion plans that were already pre-determined.
"It puts them in a pretty good position right away in that they have a data centre that's already up and running," he said.
Q9 Networks in Toronto can be reached at http://www.q9.com
The Yankee Group in Canada can be reached at http://www.yankeegroup.com