N E W S
BACKBLAZE LAUNCHES NEW DATA CENTRE IN CANADA
Backblaze has opened a new data region in Canada – Canada East( CA East) located in Toronto.
Canada’ s cloud services market is expected to grow at a CAGR of nearly 20 % in the coming years. The new facility was selected to address the performance and specific data sovereignty needs of Canadian businesses and organisations.
“ Data sovereignty and compliance are increasingly critical for businesses in Canada,” said Gleb Budman, CEO, Backblaze.“ By establishing a physical presence in the region, we’ re not only meeting regulatory requirements, but also building trust with customers who need specialised cloud storage at a fraction of the cost of what large hyperscalers offer. Having a local region enables us to provide faster, more reliable services to our Canadian customers.”
To further strengthen its Canadian market presence, Backblaze has partnered with Opti9 Technologies, an international leader in hybrid cloud solutions and Canada’ s largest, award winning Veeam Cloud Service Provider( VCSP), as the exclusive Canadian channel for Backblaze B2 Reserve and the Powered by Backblaze program. Opti9 will play a crucial role in bringing these enhanced offerings to market.
Cory Mac Donell, Vice President of Sales and Business Development, Opti9, said:“ We are excited to launch this Canadian storage region in collaboration with Backblaze, which expands our overall cloud storage footprint in Canada. This partnership equips our Canadian partners and end-user organisations with the tools they need to thrive in today’ s fastevolving digital landscape.”
The collaborative effort – with Google, Meta, NVIDIA and various utilities as founding members – now includes France-based RTE and Schneider Electric, Amsterdam-based ING and PPC Group, based in Athens, Greece.
DCFlex will establish flexibility hubs, demonstrating innovative data centre and power supplier strategies that enable operational and deployment flexibility, streamline grid integration and transition backup power solutions to grid assets. Demonstration deployments will begin in the first half of 2025, and testing is planned to run through 2027.
EPRI, a global non-profit energy research and development organisation, has announced the international expansion of its DCFlex initiative – starting with participants in Europe.
Introduced last year in the US, DCFlex explores how data centres can support the electric grid, enable better asset utilisation and improve interconnection and efficiency.
EPRI’ S DATA CENTRE FLEXIBILITY AND GRID RELIABILITY INITIATIVE EXPANDS TO EUROPE
“ Europe is experiencing significant growth in electricity demand, driven by data centres, AI, increased electrification and other factors,” said EPRI President and CEO Arshad Mansoor.“ Flexible data centre design and operation is a key strategy for accelerating AI development and realising its benefits, while minimising costs and enhancing system reliability.”
“ As the demand for grid connections from hyperscalers grows exponentially in France, RTE must match the electric consumption of their algorithms with the power system constraints to accelerate the connection process,” said Xavier Piechaczyk, President of the Managing Board, RTE.
www. intelligentdatacentres. com 9