Located in Laval, the third largest city in Quebec, the highly secure building spans 44,500 square feet of space with the potential for additional expansion as client demands grow. It will house powerful computer servers, all of which feature redundant power, cooling and security systems.

TELUS currently operates eight data centers in cities across Canada, including Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver and Rimouski, Quebec. Each TELUS facility is connected to its national Internet protocol network and serves as a secure platform for providing managed information technology, unified communications and contact centre solutions.

"This investment in Quebec will support our clients' growing need for more powerful IT infrastructure while having one of the lowest carbon footprints of all data centers in North America," says Karen Radford, president of TELUS Quebec and TELUS Partner Solutions. "TELUS is very proud to be leading the way to a healthier and greener future for our team members and our customers in Quebec, and around the world."

The data center will be connected to 6MVA, which is enough energy to supply the needs of more than 5,000 homes.

To counter the heat generated by the computer servers, its high density power design and efficient heat exchange system will turn Quebec's cold climate into free cooling during two thirds of the year. Additionally, highly efficient air conditioning units will be used when free cooling is unavailable.

The facility is designed according to LEED standards, an internationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high-performance sustainable buildings. It will be independently reviewed by the Canada Green Building Council's rigorous rating system.

TELUS says it promotes a "whole building approach to environmental health, which includes sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environment quality.

The company has already started retrofitting the existing structure and says it hopes to begin hosting new clients at what it calls its "greenest Internet data center" in 2010.

Quebec continues to be a hotspot for data center activity, with companies like IBM, iWeb, and Fusepoint Managed Services opening data centers in the area in the past few years. In October 2007, iWeb Group announced it would open an 850 cabinet equivalent colocation data center in Montreal in December 2007, making it the company's third data center in Quebec.

TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services, including data, IP, voice, entertainment and video. The company has $9.4 billion of annual revenue and 11.4 million customer connections, including 5.8 million wireless subscribers, 4.3 million wireline network access lines and 1.2 million Internet subscribers.