In what a company executive calls a "significant milestone" for the evolution of cloud computing, Mississauga-based information systems provider
CentriLogic has signed its first customer to its recently-launched US cloud.
That client,
Cookie Jar Entertainment, will be familiar to many parents: they are among the world's largest children's television programming companies, creating shows such as
The Doodlebops,
Arthur and
Caillou, and licensing agencies (representing Richard Scarry and Strawberry Shortcake, among others). The company is in the process of moving its consumer websites to CentriLogic's on-demand cloud service.
Launched in 2007, CentriLogic has grown steadily, constructing servers for its cloud, managed hosting and data centre services in Rochester, Buffalo, downtown Toronto and Mississauga. According to CentriLogic VP Jim Latimer, having multiple facilities in both Canada and the US gives the company a competitive edge. Latimer says that with "failover" locations on each side of the border, clients in the US and Canada can be sure their data will stay in its county of origin.
CentriLogic currently has between 30 and 50 employees, Latimer says. As a veteran of the dot-com boom and the industry ups and downs since then, he says he's comfortable with CentriLogic's manageable rate of growth. But he says that the company has the infrastructure to scale up quickly, and the Cookie Jar contract represents a milestone in industry's warming up to cloud computing. "I expect our growth to accelerate rapidly," he says. "A lot of organizations to date haven't been rushing to put their data on the cloud, even with all the hype about cloud computing. It's new and the water still looked pretty chilly. But now the water is warming up and a lot of startups and other businesses are looking to the cloud ... the trepidation is gone, for the most part."
Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Jim Latimer, Vice President of Client Solutions, CentriLogic
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