Interconnecting Canada from Coast to Coast

Equinix has been serving the Canadian market in Toronto for more than a decade. We’ve enjoyed it so much that ­– like Drake on tour – we’re going multi city (sans the entourage).

Yes, we’re excited to report we’re significantly expanding our reach in Canada. Today, we entered into a definitive agreement with BCE Inc. (“Bell”) to purchase a portfolio of 13 data center sites across eight metro markets from coast to coast. The 13 data center sites represent 25 Bell data center facilities.[1]

The addition of these data centers – combined with more than 600 customers doing business in these facilities – will boost interconnection capabilities within Canada and between Canada and the rest of the world.

This scale gives the Canadian market a clear and rapid migration path to digital transformation. Companies that digitally transform can be better equipped to unlock growth in new markets, improve financial performance and deliver greater value. Those that don’t digitally transform are at risk of being left behind.

Equinix Toronto TR2 Data Center

The 600+ Canadian-based customers that we’ll have the pleasure to serve span across numerous growth verticals, such as tech, government, financial services and enterprise. In fact, 13 of these customers are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange Top 30 (TSX30). After the acquisition, these 600+ companies will have access to our global network of nearly 10,000 customers. As for our existing Equinix customers, they’ll gain access to more ecosystem partners and the ability to leverage Platform Equinix® services across Canada.

O Canada, Grow Canada

To understand why we’re expanding in Canada, just look at the nation’s growth. Canada is the third-largest economy in the Americas. It also stands as the tenth largest in the world and of the top 10 economies, it has the second-largest trade gross domestic product (GDP) ratio.[2]

Partner 2 Empower
Today, we also announced a plan for a strategic partnership with Bell, Canada’s largest telecom provider. Together we plan to help companies accelerate the shift to digital with our combined integrated networking and hybrid multicloud services.

Our shared customers will have full access to Bell’s expertise in tech and telecommunication services, along with our global platform of interconnected data centers and business ecosystems.

It’s a really powerful combo. It’ll help businesses quickly scale and interconnect their infrastructures across the street, across the country and across the world. This will allow them to place latency-sensitive workloads (e.g., gaming, digital commerce, financial trading) at the digital edge, closer to local markets for an exceptional user experience.

This partnership will make Bell the first and only Equinix Platinum partner in Canada.

We also have vibrant, dense ecosystems of global cloud service providers (CSPs), including the world’s biggest hyperscalers (you know who they are), as well as technology partners and global network service providers (NSPs). The Bell acquisition will enable our partners to make their services available to the Canadian market on Platform Equinix.

At Equinix, we’re proud of our rich digital and business ecosystems and the gravity they create to attract top resellers, systems integrators and service providers.

So…Now What?

Now comes the fun part. Once connected on Platform Equinix,_, the 600+ Bell Canadian customers will be able to take their business anywhere it needs to be over our globally interconnected Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric™ (ECX Fabric™).

For those not familiar with ECX Fabric, it’s a software-defined interconnection service that allows any business to directly, securely and dynamically connect between its own distributed infrastructure and any other company’s distributed infrastructure, including the world’s largest network service and cloud providers, on Platform Equinix.These customers will also have fast access to edge services to help their businesses scale, such as network functions virtualization (NFV) via Network Edge and on-demand bare metal capabilities.

We’re looking forward to deepening our relationships with our existing Canada-based customers and helping new companies throughout the country position themselves for digital success. If you are one of these businesses, let’s connect.

In the meantime, check out the IDC MarketScape Report: Worldwide Colocation and Interconnection Services 2019 – 2020 Vendor Assessment.

[1] Note: Equinix counts a building (including a building that has had multiple phased expansions over time) as a single “data center.” Bell counts each expansion within a building as a separate data center.

[2] World Economic Forum: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/02/india-gdp-economy-growth-uk-france/