A look inside the TELUS data center in Rimouski, Quebec. TELUS Ventures has invested in Vigilent, which makes energy management tools. (Photo: Skanska)
TELUS Ventures has made a venture investment in Vigilent, a Silcon Valley-based company that makes sustainable energy management systems for cooling buildings that give off a lot of heat, including data centers.
Vigilent uses artificial intelligence and wireless technology to deliver data center infrastructure management (DCIM) to help clients reduce energy costs, increase equipment reliability and become greener.
"We feel that this is a very wise investment for our company," said Mathew George, vice president of TELUS Ventures.
We look for investment opportunities with companies that have both a strong earning potential and are focused on an area of interest for TELUS – and this one definitely fits the bill. Not only does Vigilent align with our next-generation cloud computing strategy, it also supports our commitment to being a leading corporate citizen and our climate change strategy."
The venture capital comes from a previous, successful relationship. Vigilent has been deployed in three TELUS data centers and several telecommunications buildings over the last year. Four more data center conversions are in progress, so TELUS is obviously seeing results with Vigilent.
"We deployed Vigilent technology into existing data centers and telecommunications switching buildings and in a week we were able to dramatically reduce the amount of power they use for cooling," said Lloyd Switzer, TELUS senior vice-president of Network Transformation.
As part of TELUS’ next-generation cloud computing strategy, the company recently opened a new Internet data center in Rimouski and will open a similar facility in Kamloops this summer. The company has a focus on environmental sustainability; it has a data center in Vancouver where it uses excess heat to warm condos, as one example.
The new data centers meet the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold standard, and are designed to use up to 80 per cent less power than a typical data center of their size. The combination of new highly efficient footprint plus Vigilent technology deployed in existing facilities provides TELUS with tools to substantially reduce cooling energy consumption.
"We are proud to be offered the chance to work with TELUS to improve the energy efficiency and reliability of one of the best telecommunications networks in the world," said Mark Housley, Vigilent CEO. "Our close collaboration with TELUS over the last year has delivered impressive results and we are enthusiastic about how our joint efforts will make for a more sustainable planet, while also delivering immediate reductions in energy costs and significant mitigation of cooling-related risk."
