Equinix Americas head on the Canadian data centre advantage

Equinix continues to brand itself as a connection point between clouds.

In Silicon Valley, the company's 12 sites scattered around the bay connect anything from a range of industries, including healthcare and autonomous-vehicle services. Over the past 28 years, the company has built a global network of data centres across dozens of metropolitan areas, following a different model from hyperscale projects such as Meta's planned one-gigawatt facility in Sturgeon County, Alberta.

While the company's largest market remains the United States, Canada has become a major focus area for the data centre company, Equinix's President, Americas Arquelle Shaw said, overseeing operations in the United States, Canada, and various countries in South America.

Equinix's portfolio in the country has grown through a mix of custom-purpose builds and retrofitted acquisitions. Namely, an over-CAD $1 billion deal with telecom giant Bell in October 2020 that included 13 data centre sites from coast to coast. 

Shaw said that amid Canada-U.S. trade tensions, customers are shifting where they want to store their data. Keeping data and workloads within Canada comes to mind for customers concerned about data sovereignty. Shaw said that over the past 18 months, many customers are looking to Canada for the financial services ecosystem in Toronto and Montreal, as well as a historically stable government

"We're heavily involved in terms of really establishing the presence of Canada as a destination for AI and customers who are looking to build out their digital infrastructure," said Shaw. "There may be companies that reside in other parts of the world that want to be in North America and are not as prone to right now being inside of the U.S. because of data concerns. They may find themselves saying, 'I've got sovereignty issues. I need to make sure that there's an extra layer of security. So I'd like to land into Toronto, and then I can take the data that I can release and needs to get into the financial services ecosystem in New York.'"

Just last week, the federal government unveiled its principles for domestic data centres. The principles call for data centres to create lasting local benefits, avoid shifting electricity costs onto households and existing businesses, minimise water and environmental impacts, disclose local impacts and provide strategic value to Canada.

From Equinix's perspective, a company that has operated data centres in Canada since 2010 (with the launch of Toronto's TR1 facility), Shaw said the effects of the tariffs are not seen as a major impediment to business, as the company aims to keep the supply chain rather local for its national operations.

Internationally, Shaw said Equinix customers are reevaluating where they want to land their workloads.

"I think customers who are held to certain guidelines and laws attached to sovereignty are going to look at Canada which has always led with that and sees that as an advantage as being a place where they would want to land," she continued. "It's also that Canada is working and always has worked to be a place where customers can come and has built an economy that invites them in. So we're seeing that customers really want to be in Canada."

While the U.S. CLOUD Act can allow U.S. authorities to seek data held overseas by providers subject to American jurisdiction, regardless of where that data is stored, some organisations still choose Canada for other sovereignty, energy and environmental considerations.

Some organisations also consider Canada's comparatively low-emissions electricity supply, although grid carbon intensity varies significantly between provinces.

As outlined in Canada's Responsible Data Centre Development Principles, new projects must not shift project-driven electricity system costs onto existing residents and businesses, and must prioritise sustainable, low-impact technologies and practices, including closed-loop water technologies and low-emission energy.

Equinix VP, Sustainability Christopher Wellise, told TechDay the company has a 100 per cent renewable energy target, which it intends to reach by 2030.

"Nuclear and hydro in Canada are features that we're able to take advantage of due to low grid emission factors in Canada," he added.

Looking ahead, Shaw said businesses will be watching the Canadian Coalition for Digital Infrastructure, an industry-led group working to serve as a central platform for cloud providers, data centre developers, and operators. On Equinix's Canadian business growth, Shaw said the company is looking at Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.

"People are watching to see if Canada wants to welcome data centres and AI companies in. And of course, that's going to attract more business into Canada. "