IBM unveiled its new Cloud Multizone Region (MZR) in Montreal, Quebec, designed to help clients address their evolving regulatory requirements and leverage technology such as generative AI with a secured, enterprise cloud platform.
Building on the opening of IBM Cloud’s Toronto MZR in 2021 and existing data centers in Montreal, the opening of the new Montreal MZR is planned for the first half of 2025.
According to the company, IBM’s expanded presence in Canada is expected to help clients throughout the country manage their emerging and existing regulatory demands—including geographic requirements around sovereignty—while driving innovation.
IBM’s new MZR will build on its continued dedication to help clients drive innovation and be the latest advancement in IBM Cloud’s delivery of global next-generation MZRs and data centers designed to deliver higher bandwidth, resiliency, security, reliability, and automation capabilities. As regulated industries such as federal and financial services continue to face changing requirements, the Montreal MZR is being designed to enable Canadian clients to deploy AI and mission-critical workloads with high levels of security, and help clients address their data sovereignty and regulatory compliance requirements.
The Montreal MZR will be comprised of three Availability Zones, designed to provide availability, consistent cloud services, and greater resiliency to help clients run mission-critical workloads. SmartWorks, a division of Harris Computer Systems, and other enterprises across Canada will have access to the new MZR which will be supplied by 100% renewable electricity and its innovative hybrid cloud capabilities including access to IBM Power Virtual Server and VMware as a Service, along with SAP and HPC as a Service. As clients across Canada embrace AI, IBM Cloud also offers a high-performance, flexible, AI-optimized infrastructure for IBM watsonx, with bare metal and virtual server GPU options.
“We are committed to enabling Canadian clients to drive growth and innovation, while helping them demonstrate their compliance and keep their data secured. IBM’s new Cloud MZR in Quebec will be designed to deliver highly resilient and performant digital infrastructure that can be used to scale, fuel growth and boost competitiveness for organizations across the province and spanning industries, including those in highly regulated sectors such as financial services, government, and healthcare,” said Alan Peacock, General Manager, IBM Cloud. “IBM’s continued investment in the Quebec region and sovereign cloud capabilities aim to help Canadian organizations address their growing requirements and keep data secured and in-country.”
IBM’s work to expand its MZRs within the country signals its continued dedication to help foster business growth in Canada. The opening of the Montreal MZR will be the secondary region for many clients that require geographic redundancy and resiliency in Canada, according to IBM.
By delivering access to IBM’s enterprise cloud platform designed for highly regulated industries, IBM aims to help clients across Canada accelerate cloud adoption.
For more information about this news, visit www.ibm.com.