After five years of planning and 18 months of construction, Shared Services Canada officially opened a new state of the art Enterprise Data Centre (EDC) at Base Borden.
The centre is one of four such data hubs across the country that will be used to take the place of hundreds of existing centres that are run by various government departments. It is the size of five NHL hockey arenas and is surrounded by barbed wire fencing.
The location of the massive data centre is classified. Security is a top priority.
“It’s important for us to ensure the security and safety of government information, and Canadian citizens information,” said Shared Services Canada’s director general Jay Amdur. “This facility will host a variety of government applications.”
The facility was designed, built and financed through a private-public partnership contract worth $322 million. The contract also includes operating and maintaining the EDC for 25 years.
Shared Services Canada officials said several Georgian College graduates have been hired to work at the new data centre, adding local talent has been beneficial.
The other three EDC’s are located in Barrie, Gatineau, and Montreal.
