Rogers Communications continues to expand its data centre capabilities.
The company announced this week it is buying Pivot Data Centres, which operates three co-location facilities in Calgary and Edmonton, and Granite Networks of Ottawa, which provides co-location, managed services and cloud hosting services in Ontario and Quebec.
The total cost for the acquisitions is about $161 million and will almost double Rogers’ data centre size.
Combined with Rogers’ [TSX: RCI.A] recent purchase of BlackIron Data, the company will own data centres in in Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary Eventually four will meet Uptime Institute’s Tier III standards.
Both Pivot Data Centres and Granite Networks provide Rogers Business Solutions, which oversees the data centre offerings, with unique opportunities to acquire established data centre businesses with significant expansion capacity in prime markets for these services, the company said in a news release.
“The addition of two high quality and growing data centre operations will enable Rogers Business Solutions to expand the availability of its reliable, and leading-edge data services,” AJ Byers, president of BlackIron Data said in a news release. “Both organizations will enhance Rogers Business Solutions BlackIron Data offering as customers in key markets will now have access to expanded data capacity, managed and cloud service offerings.”
Pivot’s three data centres have a total capacity of more that 130,000 square feet, and it is about to open two more adding another 110,000 sq. ft. Rogers said Pivot has over 100 enterprise and government customers. The deal for the company is expected to close next month. The Granite purchase has been completed.
When Pivot’s new data centres are finished, Rogers will have 13 across the country.
In an interview Byers said Rogers wants to increase its national data centre presence. Also, Pivot’s management team is very strong, he said. “And as we’re trying to grow the business, having more skilled resources will help us grow a lot faster.”
Granite is appealing because it gives Rogers another data centre in Ottawa, where Byers said Rogers needs more capacity. It was easier to buy a provider rather than build a new facility.
The two companies will eventually be re-branded under the BlackIron label.
Grant and Pivot were primarily co-location providers, where BlackIron offers full suite of cloud and managed services. So their customers will have access to those services.
But, Byers added, the customers will also have access to Rogers’ fibre optic network and the services it offers.
