Bell Aliant plans Saint John, New Brunswick data center, targets new colocation opportunities

Bell Aliant is enhancing its data center capacity for existing and new business customers, announcing that it will build a new $23 million facility in Saint John, New Brunswick.

The project is a joint effort between the telco and the Province of New Brunswick, which is contributing $4.5 million to cover the costs of building the new center. Under the terms of the agreement, New Brunswick will extend its existing voice services agreement with Bell Aliant by one year.

Initially supporting one megawatt of energy, the 24,000-square-foot center can be expanded to support 4MW as demands dictate.

Besides offering new capacity, this center build is also about business development and job creation. The service provider can use it to attract new businesses and expects to create about 50 new jobs to build and operate the center.

Over the past five years, Bell Aliant has been aggressively enhancing its data center presence, spending $36.3 million to expand its offerings with Saint John, N.B., Halifax, N.S., and St. John's, N.L. This figure includes the $14 million it has invested in its existing New Brunswick data center services.

Bell Aliant's timing to build this new center aligns well with the growth trends analysts are seeing in the North American market.  

According to DCD Intelligence, nearly a quarter of all data center footprint in the North America region is now outsourced. The research firm estimates that the current amount invested in data center outsourcing and colocation rose 13 percent over the past 12 months to about $8.8 billion. It has forecast 15 percent further growth by the end of 2014.

For more:
- see the release

Related articles:
Bell Aliant FTTH subs reach 184,000 mark in Q4 2013
Bell Aliant, Cogeco, others bring fiber to 50 Eastern Ontario business parks
Bell Aliant adds 5 new shows to IPTV-based community TV channel
Bell Aliant IPTV revenue grows to $11.5M, adds 16,300 FibreOP TV customers
Bell Aliant spends $11.6M to bring FTTH service to 5 Newfoundland, Labrador markets