MONTRÉAL, Oct. 21, 2015 /CNW Telbec/ - To meet growing demand from North American businesses, world-leading cloud and internet services company OVH.com has announced that it is expanding its activities in Greater Montréal, three years after setting up in 2012. This investment will be used to set up a new 17,800 square foot headquarters in downtown Montréal and double the company's workforce by creating around 140 new jobs.
The growth of OVH.com reflects a pressing need among businesses to host a growing volume of digital content. It is estimated that there will only be enough capacity to host 15% of the world's data in 2020, compared to 30% in 2013.
"Exploding digital demand is driving major changes in the industry, and OVH is responding to this new reality. Our Greater Montréal facility, which is home to the world's biggest data centre—with 360,000 servers—has opened up the North American market to us," explained Laurent Allard, Chief Executive Officer of OVH.com. "Our services meet the highest industry standards and can be tailored to all types of clients—developers, start-ups, SMEs, application providers and large corporations. Key to our growth has been our offering of a transversal, competitive and secure solution," he added.
OVH.com has its R&D and commercial service headquarters in the heart of downtown Montréal, as well as a data centre in Beauharnois, on Montréal's South Shore. Investissement Québec and Montréal International provided help to set up and develop its local operations.
"Greater Montréal has distinct advantages, such as a strategic geographic location and very competitive operating costs that enable it to position itself favourably on the international stage and tap into the potential of big data operations," said Élie Farah, Vice President, Investment Greater Montréal, Montréal International. "In the era of 'big data,' the presence of a major player such as OVH.com definitely strengthens the region's expertise as a data hosting and IT services centre of excellence," he added.
The OVH.com expansion will also provide space and support services for tomorrow's skilled workers and start-ups to build future partnerships in Québec's metropolis. "Our goal is to play a major role in Greater Montréal's ecosystem, by supporting the emergence of promising start-ups," explained Laurent Allard.
A "French Tech" designation for Montréal
A sure sign of the region's attractiveness, OVH.com is supporting Greater Montréal's bid for the 'French Tech' designation from the French government, which recognizes the world's most innovative metropolises as centres of excellence in technology. After New York and Tokyo, Montréal would be the third city in the world to obtain this designation. Named 'Bleu-Blanc-Tech,' and supported by Denis Coderre, Mayor of Montréal and Chair of the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal, this promotional effort is aimed at boosting the initiatives of companies in France and Montréal to accelerate their international expansion.
About OVH.com
Providing 930,000 customers with a better, safer cloud, OVH.com operates over 220,000 physical servers in 17 data centres world-wide, powered by a private fiber optic network (4,000Gbps). In 2013, the company opened the biggest data centre in the world in Montréal, with a capacity of 360,000 servers. OVH.com owes its success to its disruptive pricing made possible by adopting an industrial approach to a high-tech industry, and maintaining complete control of the supply chain, through total vertical integration (from datacenter construction to server production). OVH.com is committed to finding innovative solutions to push the boundaries of cloud security.
About Investissement Québec (investquebec.com)
Investissement Québec's mission is to foster investment in Québec in order to support economic growth and job creation in all of the province's regions. The Corporation offers businesses a full range of financial solutions, including loans, loan guarantees, and equity investments, to support them at all stages of their development. It also administers tax measures and works to attract foreign investment.
About Montréal International (montrealinternational.com @MTLINTL)
For 20 years, Montréal International (MI) has been acting as an economic driver for Greater Montréal to stimulate growth and create wealth by attracting foreign direct investment, international organizations and skilled workers to the region. MI supports clients every step of the way, from initial exploratory studies through recruiting and financing to business plan development.
Its mission also includes promoting the business environment of Québec's metropolis around the world—which offers advantages such as direct access to a market of 500 million consumers (NAFTA), a creative and highly specialized workforce, the most competitive operating costs in North America, and high value-added industries (aerospace, video games, special effects and multimedia, life sciences and health technologies, agri-food processing, etc.). Find out more about this ecosystem by visiting the interactive map of Greater Montréal's businesses (montrealinternational.com/business-map).
MI is financed by the private sector, the governments of Canada and Québec, the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (Montréal Metropolitan Community) and the City of Montréal.
About Contact MTL, the ambassadors network (contactmtl.com @GreaterMTL)
Montréal International is a founding partner of Contact MTL, Greater Montréal Ambassadors Network, which aims to enhance Greater Montréal's international profile and strengthen its position as an economic, technological, cultural and higher education metropolis.
SOURCE OVH.COM
Montréal International, Céline Clément, Public Relations Director, Tel.: 514-987-9317, [email protected]; Investissement Québec, Chantal Corbeil, Spokesperson, Investissement Québec, Tel.: 514-873-7161, [email protected]; OVH.com, David-Olivier Gascon, 514-296-9976, [email protected]
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