Curaçao Technology Exchange N.V. (CTEX) unveiled the final implementation details of its US$120 million dollar project to build the largest and most advanced data center complex to service Latin America and the Caribbean on the island of Curaçao at the Annual Spring Forum on Financing, Investing & Real Estate Development for Data Centers in New York – an event hosted by the information management network (IMN). CTEX has already received significant industry recognition for its advanced design and engineering. The design minimizes its carbon footprint, uses specialized construction materials to achieve favorable PUE ratios, and implements an advanced cloud computing architecture. The first of four 57,000 square feet certified data centers is scheduled to enter production this September.
Having weathered the latest global financial crisis, Latin American economies continue to gain momentum, and the demand for advanced data centers continues to flourish. Until now, data centers were generally found in key metro areas such as Sao Paulo Brazil, Santiago de Chile, Mexico DF, Bogota, Lima Peru, Panama and Costa Rica. However, these data centers have either become outdated or are located in harm’s way; such as near major seismic fault lines. This has forced companies to leverage data centers in the U.S., Canada, Europe or elsewhere. Today, large Latin America corporations, or multi-Latina companies, are seeking to work with advanced data centers in safe regional jurisdictions and that are politically neutral so they can ensure high levels of data privacy– a key factor when considering where to place important valuable information assets.
While CTEX is only three years old, its founders are seasoned professionals with significant experience and a proven track record in the IT and data center spaces. After an exhaustive analysis, CTEX selected the island of Curaçao as the location to build its certified Tier-IV data and disaster recovery centers because it offers all the benefits of safety, fiscal benefits, (i.e., zero import duties on equipment), a multi-lingual workforce, extensive connectivity, and is political neutral (Curaçao is part of the Dutch Kingdom) and closeness to the region.
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“The need for companies to find trustworthy data centers to store their critical information, and to run core applications, will continue to drive the market positively in the next years,” said Anthony de Lima, CTEX’s Chairman & CEO. He continued, “Together with the Uptime Institute, Lee Technologies, Schneider Electric, CISCO Systems, VCE and others, we have gone through a rigorous process to ensure we engineered the most advanced data center in the region.”
He furthered, “Our goal was to build a highly advanced technology and data center hub that was second to none. We wanted a data center that would incorporate the latest design philosophies around cooling, power efficiency and security management. Ultimately, we are taking the guess work out of configuring some of the most complex technologies for our customers. And, by providing access to a regional staff, companies are guaranteed the right customer touch. We see a trend towards converged network infrastructure and improved computer and services offerings. To address these needs, CTEX invested in the one of the most advanced and secured cloud infrastructures – VBLOCK® by VCE,” said de Lima.
Together with reputable regional and Canadian banks, pension funds, the local telecommunications company, and investors the company broke ground in April 2012. The design and engineering aspects for the CTEX data center won the company the Datacenterdynamics award for incorporating the most advanced design and engineering of any data center in the Caribbean in Latin America. Along with addressing advanced power distribution, the advanced cooling and security infrastructure addresses three different types computing architectures ranging from low density to super high density. While CTEX is undergoing final installation and commissioning of its data centers, it is already servicing the region by offering advanced Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Back-up-as-a-Service (BaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings through its VBLOCK platform. The company is also working on expanding a business Appstore through which it will provide vertical solutions to the Oil & Gas, Financial Services, Logistics & Transportation, Airline, Hospitality and other industry segments.
In the Caribbean and Latin America, companies are beginning to understand the importance of outsourcing to a trusted third party provider that offers and manages data center services so that they can focus on their core business services. Demand is growing. Driven by the need to minimize upfront capital investments, improve security, enhance overall technology capability, deployment speed, digitalization and ongoing redundancy and recoverability, CTEX’s next generation data center aims to provide the necessary infrastructure for Latin America and Caribbean businesses to manage the increasing IT workload required to compete globally. The company’s auspicious locale is attracting business customers across the region.
About CTEX
will operate green certified data centesr and internet exchange point from which Cloud computing, collocation and managed services will be delivered to enterprise, government, and institutional clients. The data center fabric is designed using the latest ‘cloud’ computing infrastructure enabling companies to pool computing, storage, networking and power needs on an ‘on-demand’ basis. Customers can build private virtualized environments leveraging VMware and other technologies to maximize their investments while fully controlling spend. CTEX offers four types of core solutions: cloud computing infrastructure, managed hosting, disaster recovery and workgroup Recovery, and physical media storage & archival services.