• About Us
  • Partnership Opportunities
  • Privacy Policy

Data Center Frontier

Charting the future of data centers and cloud computing.

  • Cloud
    • Hyperscale
  • Colo
    • Site Selection
    • Interconnection
  • Energy
    • Sustainability
  • Cooling
  • Technology
    • Internet of Things
    • AI & Machine Learning
    • Edge Computing
    • Virtual Reality
    • Autonomous Cars
    • 5G Wireless
    • Satellites
  • Design
    • Servers
    • Storage
    • Network
  • Voices
  • Podcast
  • White Papers
  • Resources
    • COVID-19
    • Events
    • Newsletter
    • Companies
    • Data Center 101
  • Jobs
You are here: Home / Featured / Cologix Acquires Montreal Hyperscale Specialist Colo-D

Cologix Acquires Montreal Hyperscale Specialist Colo-D

By Rich Miller - December 20, 2018

Cologix Acquires Montreal Hyperscale Specialist Colo-D

Cologix has acquired Montreal provider COLO-D. This is the COLO-D D1 data center , a 20 megawatt facility in Drummondville, Quebec. (Photo: Cologix)

LinkedinTwitterFacebookSubscribe
Mail

Data center provider Cologix will acquire Montreal-based hyperscale specialist COLO-D in a deal that deepens its offerings in a key market. The acquisition continues the evolution of Cologix, which is seeking to grow beyond its core business of colocation and interconnection services in regional hubs, and offer larger footprints in hyperscale markets.

Buying COLO-D adds 50 megawatts of wholesale data center capacity in the Montreal market, where Cologix already dominates the interconnection business, with seven facilities throughout the region. The deal also caps a big week for Montreal, following on the heels of Vantage Data Centers’ $200 million acquisition of 4Degrees Colocation on Tuesday.

The transaction underscores the importance of connectivity in the fast-growing hyperscale data center business, as interconnection facilities provide ready access to cloud platforms in wholesale data centers.

“The COLO-D acquisition is representative of our investment and commitment to offering tethered hyperscale data centers in order to meet and exceed the needs of the rapidly growing hyperscale edge and cloud connectivity markets,” said Bill Fathers, Chairman and CEO of Cologix. “COLO-D and Cologix combine the necessary physical infrastructure with the cloud and network on-ramps to a robust connectivity ecosystem that hyperscalers require.”

Why Hyperscalers Love Montreal

COLO-D is part of a growing data center industry in Montreal. Cologix has long been the leading multi-tenant operator in Montreal, and in recent years it has been joined by a group of wholesale data center specialists, including COLO-D and ROOT Data Center, which have won deals with larger hyperscale customers. Recent additions include eStruxture, which has acquired several established providers in the Montreal market, and now Vantage.

Hyperscale players have focused on Montreal due to abundant hydro power from local utility Hydro Quebec, which is available at far cheaper prices than options in Toronto.  Both Google and Amazon Web Services have opened cloud regions in Montreal in recent years.

With the COLO-D acquisition, Cologix says it will deploy $500 million in data infrastructure investment across its Montreal footprint by the end of 2019 including a 3 megawatt expansion in its  downtown MTL7 data center. Collectively the companies now offer choice of 80+ networks and direct on-ramps to the leading clouds services, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and IBM Cloud.

The two companies said the deal offers the opportunity for COLO-D the opportunity to grow further in Montrea,l and perhaps bring its large-footprint designs to new markets.

“Montréal represents a fast growing and increasingly strategic market that has already attracted the biggest cloud platforms in the world, with an abundance of very low cost power derived from renewable energy sources,” said Patrick David, President and CEO of COLO-D. “Cologix has continually demonstrated an unmatched commitment to the needs of the region in terms of data center capacity, resources and infrastructure, and we’re pleased to now be part of their team. The combination with Cologix will further strengthen COLO-D’s market position and allows us accelerate our growth in this market and beyond.”

Free Resource from Data Center Frontier White Paper Library

AWS spending
16 Powerful Tips to Lower Your AWS Spending
Opus Interactive outlines popular tools that can help you make informed decisions about how to best allocate AWS resources and reduce costs.
We always respect your privacy and we never sell or rent our list to third parties. By downloading this White Paper you are agreeing to our terms of service. You can opt out at any time.

Get this PDF emailed to you.

Cologix Thinking Bigger

After years as a regional colocation specialist, Cologix is seeking a higher profile in the North American market for interconnection services. With the support of its new ownership, Cologix is building bigger data centers, eyeing new markets, and positioning itself as a key provider of on-ramps to major clouds.

Private equity firm Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners acquired Cologix in early 2017, calling it “a marquee platform to enter the data center and interconnection market in North America.” and pledging to invest $500 million in the company’s growth.

A first step was the company’s entry into the Northern Virginia market with the purchase of a property in Ashburn.

Although it has facilities in several major markets, including Dallas and northern New Jersey, Cologix is notable for its focus on creating interconnection facilities in regional markets, with data centers in Minneapolis, Jacksonville, Lakeland, Fla. and Columbus, Ohio in the U.S. and Canadian sites in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

Another element of Cologix’ growth strategy is building larger data centers – an emphasis that will be supported by its purchase of COLO-D, which has existing 20 megawatt and 35 megawatt facilities. The acquisition includes land parcels that can support an additional 180 megawatts of capacity.

Dark Fiber And Hyperscale Development

Fathers said the integration with COLO-D in the Montreal market will showcase a connectivity-focused strategy that will play an important growing role in the Cologix playbook going forward. Hyperscale customers are approaching “tethering” – connecting suburban wholesale data center facilities with downtown interconnection facilties – in a slightly different fashion, Fathers said. Rather than seeking lit circuits, these large customers want redundant dark fiber routes, not just diversity but “tri-versity,” according to Fathers.

In Montreal, COLO-D has several hyperscale players using its campuses. Cologix has laid dark fiber between its downtown colocation operations and the COLO-D facilities, providing flexibility for customers to implement their network designs.

Rather than relying on redundant layers of power and cooling equipment, cloud players use their network to route around outages. This approach requires lots of data capacity, and backup options for the network rather than UPS and generators.

“They all put more emphasis on resiliency from the network rather than the data center,” said Fathers. “They assume there’s going to be failure, and need two or three fiber paths to move enormous amounts of data. They’ve hit the economy of scale where it makes sense for them to do their own optics.”

Fathers said this is a trend Stonepeak identified through its ownership of euNetworks, a bandwidth infrastructure company in Western Europe. “We’re all over this topic of owning the fiber loops,” said Fathers. “We see this as an opportunity to get into that market.”

LinkedinTwitterFacebookSubscribe
Mail

Tagged With: COLO-D, Cologix, Montreal, Quebec

Newsletters

Stay informed: Get our weekly updates!

Are you a new reader? Follow Data Center Frontier on Twitter or Facebook.

About Rich Miller

I write about the places where the Internet lives, telling the story of data centers and the people who build them. I founded Data Center Knowledge, the data center industry's leading news site. Now I'm exploring the future of cloud computing at Data Center Frontier.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Voices of the Industry

Building an Enduring World Begins with Accountability and Defining an Approach for Long-term Success

Building an Enduring World Begins with Accountability and Defining an Approach for Long-term Success TJ Faze, Head of ESG Strategy and Engagement at Vertiv, outlines the company's learnings around its recent ESG efforts.

White Papers

Ethernet

Ethernet in Data Center Networks

This white paper from Anritsu discusses Ethernet usage trends in data center networks, as well as the technologies helping operators meet growing bandwidth demands and verify network performance at high speeds.

Get this PDF emailed to you.

We always respect your privacy and we never sell or rent our list to third parties. By downloading this White Paper you are agreeing to our terms of service. You can opt out at any time.

DCF Spotlight

Data center modules on display at the recent Edge Congress conference in Austin, Texas. (Photo: Rich Miller)

Edge Computing is Poised to Remake the Data Center Landscape

Data center leaders are investing in edge computing and edge solutions and actively looking at new ways to deploy edge capacity to support evolving business and user requirements.

An aerial view of major facilities in Data Center Alley in Ashburn, Virginia. (Image: Loudoun County)

Northern Virginia Data Center Market: The Focal Point for Cloud Growth

The Northern Virginia data center market is seeing a surge in supply and an even bigger surge in demand. Data Center Frontier explores trends, stats and future expectations for the No. 1 data center market in the country.

See More Spotlight Features

Newsletters

Get the Latest News from Data Center Frontier

Job Listings

RSS Job Openings | Pkaza Critical Facilities Recruiting

  • MEP Coordinator - Data Center Construction - Ashburn, VA
  • Data Center Facility Engineer - Chantilly, VA
  • Data Center Site Operations VP - Seattle, WA
  • Senior Electrical Engineer - Data Center - Denver, CO
  • Senior Estimator - Data Center Construction - Denver, CO

See More Jobs

Data Center 101

Data Center 101: Mastering the Basics of the Data Center Industry

Data Center 101: Mastering the Basics of the Data Center Industry

Data Center Frontier, in partnership with Open Spectrum, brings our readers a series that provides an introductory guidebook to the ins and outs of the data center and colocation industry. Think power systems, cooling, solutions, data center contracts and more. The Data Center 101 Special Report series is directed to those new to the industry, or those of our readers who need to brush up on the basics.

  • Data Center Power
  • Data Center Cooling
  • Strategies for Data Center Location
  • Data Center Pricing Negotiating
  • Cloud Computing

See More Data center 101 Topics

About Us

Charting the future of data centers and cloud computing. We write about what’s next for the Internet, and the innovations that will take us there. We tell the story of the digital economy through the data center facilities that power cloud computing and the people who build them. Read more ...
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

About Our Founder

Data Center Frontier is edited by Rich Miller, the data center industry’s most experienced journalist. For more than 20 years, Rich has profiled the key role played by data centers in the Internet revolution. Meet the DCF team.

TOPICS

  • 5G Wireless
  • Cloud
  • Colo
  • Connected Cars
  • Cooling
  • Cornerstone
  • Coronavirus
  • Design
  • Edge Computing
  • Energy
  • Executive Roundtable
  • Featured
  • Finance
  • Hyperscale
  • Interconnection
  • Internet of Things
  • Machine Learning
  • Network
  • Podcast
  • Servers
  • Site Selection
  • Social Business
  • Special Reports
  • Storage
  • Sustainability
  • Videos
  • Virtual Reality
  • Voices of the Industry
  • Webinar
  • White Paper

Copyright Endeavor Business Media© 2022