TORONTO, ONTARIO — (Marketwire) — 03/06/13 — , a wholly owned subsidiary of (NYSE: PTGI), will continue to provide colocation services to the (CPA), the operator of Canada-s national clearing and settlement systems. CPA has renewed its commitment to colocate the IT infrastructure supporting Canada-s essential financial transaction activities in BLACKIRON-s Ottawa data centre, ensuring the reliability and availability of the mission critical support used to monitor and manage the system.
“We are pleased that CPA will continue to colocate at BLACKIRON-s Ottawa data centre facility,” said AJ Byers, President, BLACKIRON Data. “Recognizing the importance of CPA-s operations on Canada-s economy, it speaks highly of BLACKIRON that CPA has selected us to continue hosting their critical IT infrastructure. The CPA team have been great partners to work with in developing and delivering this ultra-high reliability implementation.”
On average, CPA clears payment items worth $174.5 billion every day in Canada. To ensure 100% reliability and availability, the control systems used by CPA staff to manage and support the payments have been hosted on CPA infrastructure colocated in BLACKIRON-s data centre since 2004.
“BLACKIRON operates best-in-class data centre facilities,” said Jeff Moran, Vice-President, Payment Operations and CIO. “Outsourcing to BLACKIRON helps us operate as a best-in-class IT organization when it comes to IT infrastructure management and gives an organization such as ours a way to meet the needs of demanding customers.”
In 2012, CPA was faced with the decision to continue to buy data centre services or to build their own facility. After a careful analysis of each scenario, it became clear that there was no business case for building a dedicated data centre and CPA renewed their relationship with BLACKIRON; a decision that was easy to make considering BLACKIRON had delivered zero downtime and superior customer service over the past eight years.
“We are not in the data centre business,” said Dan Fortier, Director, IT Infrastructure and Services, CPA. “The capital investment and the ongoing operational costs that would be required to align our own data centre to the level that BLACKIRON could provide would be cost prohibitive, with little or no chance of an ROI. We chose to colocate with BLACKIRON because it was a strong business case for the exemplary level of service they were providing.”
In addition to perfect operation and superior customer service, BLACKIRON also offered a tremendous cost savings to CPA – an estimated 30 percent savings in annual ongoing operational costs.
CPA-s colocation agreement with BLACKIRON includes special provision of a backup control room at the Ottawa facility. All the necessary CPA equipment is colocated there and the set-up is tested on a monthly basis. The results are a “hot site” that is ready to go at a moment-s notice. In the event of an outage at the primary CPA control room, operations can drive to the backup location and resume operations in as little as 20 minutes.
ABOUT BLACKIRON DATA
BLACKIRON Data ULC is an innovator in data centre, cloud and managed services technology, providing a singular focus to ensuring the most robust and bullet-proof IT infrastructure to meet the needs of business. With eight owned and managed state-of-the-art, and highly reliable data centres, including Canada-s first Tier III design and construction certified facility, and the vast array of fully audited operational, facility, and environmental certifications, BLACKIRON Data is the most certified data centre services company in Canada. BLACKIRON Data is a subsidiary of Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc., a subsidiary of PTGi. Visit blackirondata.com for more information.
ABOUT PTGi
PTGi (Primus Telecommunications Group, Incorporated) is a leading provider of advanced communication solutions, including, traditional and IP voice, data, mobile services, broadband Internet, collocation, hosting, and outsourced managed services to business and residential customers in the United States and Canada. PTGi is also one of the leading international wholesale service providers to fixed and mobile network operators worldwide. PTGi owns and operates its own global network of next-generation IP soft switches, media gateways, hosted IP/SIP platforms, broadband infrastructure, fiber capacity, and data centers located in Canada. Founded in 1994, PTGi is headquartered in McLean, Virginia.
ABOUT THE CANADIAN PAYMENTS ASSOCIATION
The Canadian Payments Association operates national infrastructure essential to meeting the payment needs of Canadians. The CPA also leads its member financial institutions, businesses, government and the public in establishing the rules of Canada-s payments highway.
In a global and digital economy, the CPA provides a strong foundation to support innovation and the evolving needs of all those who depend on payments.
Contacts:
MAVERICK Public Relations, for BLACKIRON Data
Amanda Laird
416-640-5525 ext. 245
CPA MEDIA CONTACT
Canadian Payments Association
Geoffroi Montpetit
Director, Public Affairs
(613) 238-4173 ext.3240
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