ARMONK, N.Y. and MONTREAL, QC – April 9, 2024 – IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today its new Cloud Multizone Region (MZR) in Montreal, Quebec which will be 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. 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.

“As we strive to help our customers across the utilities sector deliver on their missions, it’s critical we deliver services quickly and close to where their data resides to help customers manage their data sovereignty requirements. IBM has a long history with us as an innovative provider in Canada and we are excited to see their continued dedication in the region. With the new Montreal MZR, IBM will make it possible to address latency so we can bring high speed services directly to the doorstep of our users while furthering our commitment to comply with the latest regulatory requirements to keep data both in-country and protected,” said Sharat Balachandran, VP, Research & Development, SmartWorks, a division of Harris Computer Systems.

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. This includes helping them on their journeys to demonstrate their compliance with the Government of Canada’s Protected B Medium Profile, a security level defined by the government for sensitive information and assets. IBM’s enterprise cloud platform is designed to help Canadian clients in even the most highly regulated industries with workloads on IBM Cloud as they address their local regulatory 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.

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 example, supported by a growing ecosystem of more than 130 technology partners and fintechs, IBM Cloud for Financial Services is designed to accelerate financial institutions’ digital transformations with a focus on trust, security, compliance and data sovereignty, and includes security and controls specific to the industry that are built-in to the platform. Additionally, clients can leverage Payments-as-a-Service capabilities, including Checks-as-a-Service, delivered by the IBM Payments Center, an arm of IBM Consulting, which can help give them access to the benefits of a managed, secured cloud-based platform that has the ability to scale up and down to meet changing electronic payment and check volumes.

As clients across Quebec and greater Canada continue to transform, IBM remains committed to helping them drive innovation with resiliency, performance, security and compliance at the forefront. The expansion of IBM’s presence in Canada can help enterprises across the country to leverage technology such as Generative AI with a secured, cloud platform while they address their latest regulatory demands.
 

Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only.

The client is responsible for ensuring compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. IBM does not provide legal advice nor represent or warrant that its services or products will ensure that the client is compliant with any law or regulation.

Media contact:

Kate Gazzillo
IBM Communications
Kate.gazzillo@ibm.com