At PTC’19, our CEO, Todd Coleman, participated in a panel entitled Edge-Capable Data Centers: The Next Wave. Together with Oliver Jones, CEO of Chayora Limited, and Tom Brown, President and CEO of DataGryd, the panel examined the data center’s current position in the telecommunications industry and how the rise of edge computing will transform it over the next several years.
One of the first and most important points Mr. Coleman made was to acknowledge that while large market hyperscale computing is certainly in high demand, not every customer is looking for this type of service. In today’s economy, data center providers must be flexible to ensure that customers with smaller power requirements – up to 1 MW – are not left behind. By providing agile, adaptable facilities across Canada, we are able to accommodate both large hyperscale computing clients and those with applications that require less power but still need to be located at ‘the edge’.
Inevitably, talking about hyperscale requirements quickly drew the panel into a deeper discussion regarding customers’ increasing power needs. Because newer equipment is requiring significantly more power, data centers in many markets across the world are beginning to face skyrocketing power rates, which is making it difficult to remain competitive in their pricing. However, Todd noted that eStruxture is in an excellent position in this regard because of our focus on power densification – a rising trend in many markets around the world. This allows us to stay economical with both our use of space and the cooling costs we face. Our presence in the Montreal market is also advantageous. Thanks to our partnership with Hydro-Quebec, we have access to some of the lowest power costs in North America. Together, these benefits allow us to keep our pricing competitive for customers.
To conclude the panel, Mr. Coleman and the other executives were asked where they see the data center industry heading over the next two years – a significant amount of time in the broader world of telecommunications. In his response, Mr. Coleman stated that to meet growing customer demands for data storage and connectivity, data center providers will likely have to deploy more capital across almost all the markets they serve. Right now, ‘the edge’ is similar to what the cloud was four or five years ago – a new horizon that many experts still have difficulties in defining concretely. Yet, one thing is certain. Regardless of how one defines ‘the edge’, the global proliferation of data will continue to mandate the construction of new macro and micro data centers around the world.
For more information about how your business can benefit from leveraging our data centers for your connectivity needs, download our free e-book The Case for Bicoastal Colocation in Canada here.