Seems like Calgary could be well positioned to get a fair number of these data centres for Canada West. Vancouver would be quite close to the other US west DCs so Calgary as a Canada west hub could make sense
I really hope this puts pressure on Microsoft to get a data centre built out here. This will allow companies with latency sensitive applications to seriously look at migrating them to the cloud. Current US West 2 latency was about 35ms last time we checked, which can be okay depending on the application.
There's a connection hub for Azure in Vancouver but it's not the same as a datacentre region where you can host your cloud infrastructure and services. Latency out to Toronto is really tough for certain applications. You can't get around the limits of the speed of light through the fiber.
Torquedog posted in the other thread that MS didn't have a Canada West region due to not having the power grid support but it sounds like Amazon is going to build some sort of solar infrastructure here?
Latency can be a big issue, we were part way through migrating our on-premises Oracle up to Azure when we realized that none of the applications liked the 50-90ms going to Toronto. The only solution we have right now is to look into virtual desktop infrastucture to have the user applications beside the database in Canada Central.
Amazon announced Wednesday it will purchase power from a massive new solar farm in Alberta, marking the e-commerce giant's second renewable energy investment in Canada.
Construction began in the fall of 2020 on Travers Solar, a $700-million, 465-MW project southeast of Calgary, which its developers say will be the largest solar photovoltaic project in Canada and one of the largest in the world.
Privately held Greengate Power Corp. of Calgary has been working on the project for four years and is expected to have it completed by 2022.
"It'll consist of 1.3 million solar panels spread over more than 3,000 acres (1,215 hectares) of farmland," said Dan Balaban, CEO of Greengate Power. "And it'll produce a sustainable source of energy for more than 150,000 homes."
There's a connection hub for Azure in Vancouver but it's not the same as a datacentre region where you can host your cloud infrastructure and services. Latency out to Toronto is really tough for certain applications. You can't get around the limits of the speed of light through the fiber.
Torquedog posted in the other thread that MS didn't have a Canada West region due to not having the power grid support but it sounds like Amazon is going to build some sort of solar infrastructure here?
Solar eh?
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Amazon announced Wednesday it will purchase power from a massive new solar farm in Alberta, marking the e-commerce giant's second renewable energy investment in Canada.
Construction began in the fall of 2020 on Travers Solar, a $700-million, 465-MW project southeast of Calgary, which its developers say will be the largest solar photovoltaic project in Canada and one of the largest in the world.
Privately held Greengate Power Corp. of Calgary has been working on the project for four years and is expected to have it completed by 2022.
"It'll consist of 1.3 million solar panels spread over more than 3,000 acres (1,215 hectares) of farmland,ex-farmland" said Dan Balaban, CEO of Greengate Power. "And it'll produce a sustainable source of energy for more than 150,000 homes."
Amazon announced Wednesday it will purchase power from a massive new solar farm in Alberta, marking the e-commerce giant's second renewable energy investment in Canada.
Construction began in the fall of 2020 on Travers Solar, a $700-million, 465-MW project southeast of Calgary, which its developers say will be the largest solar photovoltaic project in Canada and one of the largest in the world.
Privately held Greengate Power Corp. of Calgary has been working on the project for four years and is expected to have it completed by 2022.
"It'll consist of 1.3 million solar panels spread over more than 3,000 acres (1,215 hectares) of farmland," said Dan Balaban, CEO of Greengate Power. "And it'll produce a sustainable source of energy for more than 150,000 homes."
There's a connection hub for Azure in Vancouver but it's not the same as a datacentre region where you can host your cloud infrastructure and services. Latency out to Toronto is really tough for certain applications. You can't get around the limits of the speed of light through the fiber.
Do these firms view risk like the Cascadia plate in their locations? We're pretty lucky here in AB that all you really have to worry about is hail, the odd tornado, and flooding (oh and I guess forest fires but we aren't sticking these things in the mountains).
I really hope this puts pressure on Microsoft to get a data centre built out here. This will allow companies with latency sensitive applications to seriously look at migrating them to the cloud. Current US West 2 latency was about 35ms last time we checked, which can be okay depending on the application.
To get one is great but to play that into hubs from both MS and Amazon would really put Calgary in an enviable position. That's some 3D chess for sure.
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Datacentres are definitely very important to the internet going forward, and are an efficient method of delivering content, storing and processing data, and doing everything companies used to do with onsite servers. Having AWS so close means really good things for us in general, because the internet for AWS hosted sites will be faster and more responsive. Good for users, good for business.
100%. That disturbance in the force you feel? A million voices in business/economic development cranking out new slides for their pitch decks on Calgary. This is a big win for the tech sector here.
Last edited by Flames0910; 11-09-2021 at 01:47 PM.
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The amazing sunlight of Southern Alberta will finally start to pay off. I wonder how they will deal with snowfall and snow removal on the solar panels
They're using bifacial panels. So when it snows the light reflects off the snow on the ground and powers the back of the panels (which also helps melt the snow on the top).
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Aren't these cloud datacenters supposed to be in secret locations, so that no one would know where they are and can't plan any physical attacks to damage them? Anyways, I don't see adding datacenters will create that many new jobs in the region, but I hope that the demand for cloud computing IT specialists will rise in Western Canada.
Anyways, I don't see adding datacenters will create that many new jobs in the region, but I hope that the demand for cloud computing IT specialists will rise in Western Canada.
I mean, you can question the source because it's directly from Amazon but they would also know how many people they plan to hire and how expensive these things are to build.
And their calculations show an increase of $4.9 billion to Alberta's GDP due to the construction and operation of this facility. Interestingly, the scale of this operation is projected to be much larger than the existing one in Montreal.
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The in-region portion of the AWS investment in Alberta will sustain an estimated annual average of 871 FTE local jobs by 2037. Among them, 409 jobs will be supported through direct effects, 181 jobs will be supported through indirect effects, and 227 jobs will be supported through induced effects.
Do these firms view risk like the Cascadia plate in their locations? We're pretty lucky here in AB that all you really have to worry about is hail, the odd tornado, and flooding (oh and I guess forest fires but we aren't sticking these things in the mountains).
Amazon says they do consider the physical security and possible natural disasters in their marketing materials on their website as reliability is a key aspect of their pitch to tech/business customers.