Cologix VAN4: Cologix acquires Zayo's Vancouver facility and announces Toronto expansion

DENVER – (June 21, 2021) – Cologix, North America’s leading network-neutral interconnection and hyperscale edge data center company, announced today that as a part of its continued investment strategy in Canada it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase an interconnection facility from Zayo Group Holdings (“Zayo”) in downtown Vancouver and plans to expand by another 50K SQFT and 10 MW of power with the TOR4 hyperscale data center. In addition, Cologix reported record growth in interconnection in Canada, 22% growth in 2020, due to accelerated customer demand to access clouds, software, networks and other key stakeholders at the edge.

“Cologix is one of the largest colocation providers in Canada, with a particular focus on interconnection/carrier hotels. It has thus benefited from increased demand for network capacity and interconnection as Canadian and global companies alike shift to the new normal of having most employees work from home, as well as the strong demand for public cloud services and resulting need for datacenter space in Canada by cloud providers,” noted Jonathan Schroth, Research Analyst at 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence.[i]

New Cologix Vancouver and Toronto Investments
Located at 175 West Cordova Street with more than 65K SQFT of space, Cologix plans to immediately invest in the downtown Vancouver site to create 4.2 MW of additional capacity. Zayo is committed to the Vancouver market and will remain a key customer at the site, providing network connectivity solutions for its and Cologix’s customers.

“We continue to invest in deep connectivity and scale in Canada in response to accelerated demand for cloud deployments at the network edge,” said Cologix’s CEO Bill Fathers. “Today, Cologix hosts 75% of Canada’s direct cloud onramps at our data centers, including three in Vancouver with Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft® Azure ExpressRoute and Amazon Web Services®, and access to thousands of miles of dark fiber routes in the provinces of British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario. This site acquisition in the heart of downtown Vancouver, where data center space is in short supply, fits into Cologix’s interconnection growth strategy by continuing to expand our Canadian footprint to support edge cloud traffic growth.”

In addition, Cologix today announced plans to expand by another 50K SQFT and 10 MW of power with the TOR4 hyperscale data center. Near downtown Toronto in Markham, TOR4 offers diverse dark fiber connectivity between TOR4 and TOR1, located at 151 Front Street at the city’s primary carrier hotel. The new facility offers flexible design options and the ability to expand the facility in response to the growing cloud edge in Canada. Through Cologix’s ecosystem, Toronto customers gain access to 160+ networks, 50+ cloud providers and onramps to Amazon Web Services® Direct Connect, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft® Azure ExpressRoute, IBM Cloud and Oracle FastConnect.

These two additions to Cologix’s platform are the next step to grow Cologix’s network-dense ecosystem, which provides 200+ Canadian-based networks​ and almost 600 networks across Cologix’s footprint.

Interconnection Across Canada
As the interconnection leader in Canada, Cologix has invested over CAD $500 million over three years to grow its Canadian platform, including building and expanding cloud gateways with directly adjacent or annex peering hubs and hyperscale edge facilities, enabling dark fiber connectivity, and developing 13 cloud onramps to access hyperscale cloud providers directly and privately – all built upon the most robust interconnection infrastructure in the country. 

Across Canada, Cologix offers low cost, high bandwidth, direct connectivity to all major cloud providers with speed, scale and increased security to support edge deployments.

Additional Cologix Canada interconnection highlights:

• Carrier Hotels – Runs the main carrier hotel in Montréal; key provider in the carrier hotels in Toronto and Vancouver​.
• Cloud Onramps – 13 dedicated, direct cloud onramps in Canada, representing over 75% of all onramps in Canada.
• Cologix Access Marketplace – A cloud-like, on-demand, virtual provisioning solution to connect to major cloud providers and networks in minutes, leveraging software defined interconnection​.
• Internet Exchanges – Home to three internet exchanges in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
• Metro Optic – In 2020, Cologix acquired Metro Optic including MTL11, a key interconnection hub and unique subsea cables routes into Montréal. Through this acquisition, Cologix not only provides the underlying dark fiber infrastructure that connects 11 Montréal data centers in the region, but it also has access to dark fiber across Canada.

Hyperscale Edge Build-to-Suit (BTS) and Public Cloud Onramps
Cologix offers customized, flexible, efficient cloud infrastructure solutions to support rapid hyperscale growth at the network edge, providing high performance, cost-effective solutions at scale within a rich ecosystem.

• Acquired COLO-D and expanded the Cologix footprint with two hyperscale facilities.
  • In Drummondville, Cologix’s MTL9 facility offers 120K SQFT and 25 MW of power
  • In Longueuil, Cologix’s MTL10 facility offers 180K SQFT and 35 MW of power
• Cologix’s MTL8 land parcel in Technoparc Montréal offers build-to-suit possibilities of 325K SQFT and over 36MW of power.
• Near downtown Toronto, added build-to-suit possibilities of 50K SQFT and 10 MW of power at Cologix’s TOR4 partner facility.

Cologix’s Canadian interconnection footprint includes 19 data centers and is strengthened by the Cologix Platform, which provides access to its North American ecosystem with four additional cloud gateways across the continent in Ashburn, VA, Columbus, OH, Montréal​, QC and Silicon Valley, CA. The Cologix Platform offers a robust ecosystem of 1600+ customers and 29 direct onramps to Amazon Web Services® Direct Connect, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft® Azure ExpressRoute, IBM Cloud and Oracle FastConnect.