In recent news headlines, Kelowna’s name comes up with announcements about the new $75 million dollar gigacenter that is being built by IBM and RackForce (a Kelowna company). The 70,000 square foot facility scheduled to open in December 2008, is state of the art, energy efficient, “green” and totally secure. Upon completion it will generate 100 plus new career positions in Kelowna and area.

The gigacenter is purportedly going to be the largest in North America. That raises the question of why would these organizations choose Kelowna as the ideal place to build this very expensive facility?  Well first you have to have a clear understanding of why the facility is needed at all.

The gigacenter fulfills the huge and rapidly increasing need for IT data storage. The continuing explosion of data that is being generated (much of which must be securely stored and instantly retrievable when required for both business needs and legal and governmental requirements) is dramatically taxing data storage capacity worldwide. The gigacenter is designed with “state of the art” security, highest reliability, greatest efficiency, readily accessibility and “green power”.   Huge volumes of data will be transmitted and stored in the Kelowna gigacenter from all over the world.

Kelowna is a unique but also ideal choice as the site for this type of facility due to our moderate climate, earthquake and flood free history, and we are not in a zone normally affected by terrorism or other strife. Our electricity is reliable and “green” hydro electric and we have a very stable economy and a growing IT work force with an excellent work ethic.

All of this makes both the gigacenter and Kelowna the ideal choice for organizations both big and small wanting to avoid the disaster of data loss and have the ability to assure rapid and comprehensive disaster recovery. 

The Okanagan Valley already has a surprising number of high tech organizations with dozens of website design firms, software developers, custom programmers, computer sales and support organizations and manufacturers whose products and services are based on high end technology. On behalf of my employer Toggle Networks Inc. I am now offering to valley businesses our “state of the art”, data protection solutions that fit all enterprises, small, medium or large. 

The movers and shakers in business and community development have created and are solidly behind a “Silicon Vineyard” initiative with support from the Okanagan Science and Technology Council, the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Commission. 

The combination of the development of the Gigacenter whose primary function is the secure storage of back up data, the burgeoning growth of IT enterprises in the valley and the “Silicon Vineyard” initiative, has attracted the interest of IT Disaster Recovery and Avoidance experts.

As an example, on October 7, 2008 Toggle Networks Inc. is sponsoring a seminar  “Avoiding a Business Disaster” (naturally being in the Okanagan Valley the no charge format is a Wine & Cheese).

For further information contact ;

Bob Keeling
 Roberts.keeling@togglenetworks.com
(250) 769.9159