Granite Networks Extends Industry Certifications for Service Organization Controls

OTTAWA, Ontario (May 16, 2013): Granite Networks Inc., Ottawa and Eastern Ontario's only data centre designed to Tier 3 and LEED standards, is pleased to announce that it has recently added three additional certifications to Granite's list of industry certifications. An independent auditing firm recently completed Granite Networks Service Organization Control Report (SOC 2 Type II), Canadian Standards for Assurance Engagements (CSAE 3416 Type II) and Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE 16) – which replaced the previous Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS 70).

"Not only does this independent third party audit affirm that we have achieved world class operational excellence through our rigid security policies, but it also confirms that we have built the Granite Networks Ottawa data centre facility to a Tier 3, concurrently maintainable standard," said Granite Networks COO and Uptime Institute Certified Engineer Jason van Gaal.

“Granite's customer focused strategic plan has always called for us to be certification leaders in the data centre and managed services industry,” said Granite Networks CEO Rainer Paduch. “We are pleased to add these certifications to Granite's recently announced $2 million in closed financing, ultra reliable network, carrier neutrality and high density power options. Granite's business foundations are rock solid, and, with our commitment to providing truly exceptional customer service, we are gaining momentum as each day passes.” “Ottawa's business community has been very supportive of Granite Networks to date,” said Paduch. “Now, with the addition of these latest certifications, companies that have previously taken a “wait and see” approach will have one more solid reason to move their Internet infrastructure to Granite.”

These new certifications come in the midst of Granite celebrating the 12th consecutive month of 100% uptime at its 28,000 sq. foot Ottawa facility. The SOC 2, CSAE 3416 Type II and SSAE 16 certifications meet key service organization control requirements for companies in Canada and the United States. The audits included control objectives for the following: organization and administration, human resources security, physical security, logical access, network security and monitoring, change management, backup and disaster recovery planning, incident response, data classification, and retention and disposal.

About Granite Networks: Granite Networks manages the first and only data centre in Ottawa and Eastern Ontario designed to meet industry leading Tier 3 and LEED standards. Its data centre facility features multiple certifications and offers Ottawa's only vendor and carrier neutral data centre environment.

As Ottawa's fastest growing data centre company, Granite Networks provides flexible colocation, managed services and cloud hosting services to business and government clients in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec. The company's data centre solutions feature standard industry certifications, carrier neutrality, high-density power options, ultra reliable networking, and a truly exceptional commitment to customer service.

Source: Source: Granite Networks

Granite Networks Closes $2,000,000 in Financing, Reaches New Customer and Uptime Milestones

OTTAWA, Ontario (May 1, 2013): Granite Networks Inc., Ottawa and Eastern Ontario's only data centre designed to Tier 3 and LEED standards, is pleased to announce that it has completed a $2,000,000 financing round. This financing allows Granite Networks to continue expanding its operations to meet the demanding needs of its rapidly growing customer base.

The announcement comes on the heels of the company reaching two significant milestones. Granite recently welcomed its fiftieth data centre client while also celebrating the 12th consecutive month of 100 % uptime of its 28,000 sq. foot facility.

"We have set out to build a world class data centre company backed by an employee culture that is dedicated to providing truly exceptional customer service," said Granite Networks CEO Rainer Paduch. "Granite takes great pride in operating the single best data centre facility in Ottawa and Eastern Ontario. We are grateful for and absolutely delighted by the remarkable support given to us by the Ottawa business and technology community." "Granite's business model and strong financials are very compelling to investors," said Granite Networks CFO Mark Murray. "This is evidenced by the impressive contingent of Ottawa-area investors who have put their time and money into growing the venture."

"This latest round of financing allows Granite Networks to increase staffing, expand our cloud offerings and accelerate Granite's already underway program of industry and government sponsored certifications," said Paduch. "Granite Networks is the best option for companies that are looking for colocation services in the Ottawa area as Granite is Eastern Ontario’s first and only high quality carrier neutral colocation service provider. Previously, clients who were looking for such facilities were forced to look outside the Ottawa area," said Paduch. “Granite is well positioned to meet growing market demands in both the public and private sectors. Our ability to expand in the future as our customers' needs grow means we can grow with them, regardless of their geographic location."

About Granite Networks:
Granite Networks manages the first and only data centre in Ottawa and Eastern Ontario designed to meet industry leading Tier 3 and LEED standards. Its data centre facility features multiple certifications and offers Ottawa's only vendor and carrier neutral data centre environment.

As Ottawa's fastest growing data centre company, Granite Networks provides flexible colocation, managed services and cloud hosting services to business and government clients in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec. The company's data centre solutions feature standard industry certifications, carrier neutrality, high density power options, ultra reliable networking, and a truly exceptional commitment to customer service.

Media information:
Rainer Paduch, CEO
Granite Networks Inc.,
613-836-8800
rpaduch@granite-networks.com

Source: Granite Networks

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Aging Infrastructure Driving Demand

Big data is becoming big business in the nation's capital.

Published on October 10, 2012 Several of the country’s major telecom companies – as well as several independent firms – are constructing new data centres or have significant expansion plans on the books.

Floor-to-ceiling black cabinets, shielding row upon row of blinking servers, sprawl across thousands of square feet in these multimillion-dollar facilities.

The amount of digital information generated by governments and private companies alike is growing exponentially. That’s creating demand for reliable storage solutions at the same time that many organizations are facing costly upgrades to their own legacy IT infrastructure. This has local companies seeing many business opportunities in data services.

GRANITE NETWORKS

Granite Networks opened its $15-million, 8,000-square-foot facility on April 2 with the belief that cloud services still have a long way to grow.

The company has customers that are concerned about the cost, time and complexity of maintaining servers themselves, and have decided to hand the reins over to Granite instead, says CEO Rainer Paduch.

Granite has signed clients from a variety of sectors including health care, technology and government, both locally and internationally.

Services the data centre provides include co-location (meaning putting several customers onto the same server) as well as dedicated servers for clients with higher demands. The firm also plans to launch cloud-based computing to attract smaller clients into the facility.

“Our customers are concerned about their data integrity and need reliability,” Mr. Paduch says. “They find that running their own data centres is becoming too costly, and are looking for a high-quality supplier who can augment their own technical experts.”

BELL CANADA

Bell is completing the first phase of its data centre construction in Ottawa. It will open a 60,000-square-foot, $100-million facility on Jan. 1, 2013, seeking to cater to top-tier clients in government and the public sector seeking high security and reliability.

The two primary services of the data centre will be co-location as well as “managed services” such as hosting, network storage and cloud infrastructure.

The second phase, adding on another 60,000 square feet, will open subject to demand, which Bell says comes generally from the public sector.

“The government is challenged with running (its) data centres and keeping up with technological changes,” says Strahan McCarten, Bell’s Toronto-based director of product management, hosting and data centre services. He says many server systems were installed 15 or 20 years ago, when the technology first came on the market. In many cases, this means it’s time for an upgrade.

The consolidation of IT management under the new Shared Services government department is also driving part of the desire for upgrades.

Other clients speak of the time their office had an outage, or the time they were told power would be shut off to the building for a weekend and they couldn’t access their data.

“It’s just a skills and expertise issue,” he says. “When customers come to our facility, they get expertise.”

PRIMUS CANADA

Primus Canada has two data centres in Ottawa. The company currently has 30,000 square feet of space in the region and is expecting to add another data centre to Ottawa in the next six to 12 months.

Features of the data centres include redundant cooling, biometric security and a diesel generator capable of keeping power going for up to 24 hours in the case of an electricity outage.

The company’s core offering is data server hosting, as well as a managed service product for Internet services such as hosting.

Demand is coming from companies – as well as public-sector organizations – that want to upgrade their aging servers. Primus is also seeing firms move more into mobile offices requiring 24-7 access.

“Now that everyone is spread all over the world and working remotely, you don’t want your core infrastructure to go down. Everyone is looking for 100-per-cent uptime, which is hard to achieve in your (office) environment,” says A.J. Byers, Primus’s executive vice-president of business services.

STORM INTERNET

While other service providers in Ottawa tend to house their data centres in separate areas from their other facilities, Storm Internet hosts its data right in the centre of its 16,000-square-foot building, which is just off Maitland Avenue in Nepean.

About half of the building is devoted to “production” space, with controlled access. Products include shared hosting, virtual machines, co-location and managed servers (the hardware for which is owned and entirely managed by Storm).

The company has about 250 commercial clients in Ottawa, mostly small to medium-sized businesses. Storm has not seen an explosion in demand, but the firm says it has been steadily growing. “A lot of people are taking a look at their data sources and how much they rely on them,” says Storm CEO Dave Chiswell.

“They want to move (their server) from the closet in the office with a fan blowing on it to keep it cool, into our environment.”

Source: Elizabeth Howell, Ottawa Business Journal

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Granite Networks Appoints Rainer Paduch to CEO

OTTAWA, Ontario (May 25, 2012): Granite Networks Inc. is pleased to announce the appointment of Rainer Paduch to the position of Chief Executive Officer.

Rainer Paduch has a proven and successful track record as a serial entrepreneur, leader and manager. Rainer was most recently a venture partner at Montreal based venture capital firm Novacap. Prior to that he was founder of iSTAR Internet Inc., where he served as President, Chief Technology Officer and Vice Chairman. He successfully led iSTAR from start-up to rapid growth, IPO and acquisition by PSINet Inc. He was also an investor in and a Director of Milkyway Networks, another Ottawa based start-up that achieved a successful IPO.

Lance Laking, Chairman of Granite Networks, commented "We are very excited to have Rainer on board. His leadership, significant industry experience and track record of success over the last 20 years as a technology entrepreneur, specifically with Internet Service Providers, will position Granite for rapid growth. Attracting Rainer is a testament to Granite’s market opportunity and operations excellence.”

"Rainer is a welcome addition to our team and I look forward to working with him", Jason van Gaal, Granite Networks’ Chief Operating Officer and Facility Engineer, commented. "He joins us at a pivotal time of onboarding new customers. Granite Networks is proud to state that we are the only public facility in the National Capital Region that has maintained 100% uptime on all of our systems since our first day in operation. We are certain that Rainer will be able to leverage this excellent performance record to help us establish a distinguished presence in the Ottawa market".

Source: marketing@granite-networks.ca

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Granite Networks Grand Opening Event on May 14th, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 1st, 2012

Granite Networks is proud to announce the Grand Opening of its designed to Tier III carrier agnostic facility, the first of its kind in Eastern Ontario. Please join us to celebrate this milestone on Monday, May 14th, 2012 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Our 28,000 square foot data centre is fully operation and meets Federal Government Secret Classification standards. Granite Networks is a vendor and carrier neutral hosting company that offers Colocation, Managed Services, Cloud Hosting Services, Virtual Servers, and Disaster Recovery to both small- and medium-sized businesses in the National Capital Region.

“We are dedicated to providing Legendary Customer Service and to creating a secure and comfortable environment for our clients, staff, and executive team. Quality and sophistication inspired our design, which is apparent the moment you walk through our doors. We are excited by the prospect of showing the Ottawa area what Granite Networks has built in such a short amount of time on May 14th,” says James Mackenzie, President and CEO of Granite Networks.

This year, James Mackenzie received the Ottawa Top 40 Under 40 Award and, as such, is recognized as an accomplished industry and community leader under the age of 40. The awards are co-hosted by Ottawa Business Journal and the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce.

To attend the Grand Opening please rsvp: rsvp@granite-networks.ca

Source: marketing@granite-networks.ca