For over a decade a Montreal company called Netelligent Hosting Services has been offering business customers hosting services from space it leased in other companies’ data centres.
“There’s nothing like it in downtown Montreal, even though there is a very real need for it,” Bernier said.
Although the facility officially opened today, it has been quietly accepting customers since construction finished in the spring. “We already filled up our first two rows of cabinets and we’re building row three and four.”
Initial customers are small and mid-sized businesses, but the company is also chasing business from larger sized firms and governments.
The company offers a choice of Intel-based i3, i7, E3, Xeon or Dual Xeon powered servers from Hewlett-Packard Co, Dell Inc. and Supermicro. Two Juniper Networks MX480 core routers form the heart of the internal network, linked to a series of Cisco Systems Inc. Catalyst 2960-X switches. In all there is 60 Gpbs of capacity.
Bernier said the centre promises 100 per cent power availability with 5.5 MW of backed up power, important in a city that has seen a few power outages this summer. The last one, three weeks ago, saw the lights go out in the rest of the building except Canadian Colo’s offices, he said.
Co-location offerings start with a 1U server at $75 a month and go up to 5U at $129 a month. Private colocation cabinets also available starting from 1/8 rack, quarter, half ($300 a month) and full racks ($450 a month) with electricity and premium bandwidth.
There’s also disaster recovery, private WAN and remote managed services offerings.