New York-based DigitalOcean, a cloud infrastructure provider that focuses on simplifying web infrastructure for developers, announced the launch of a new data centre in Toronto, called TOR1, which goes live today. This makes Toronto DigitalOcean’s 11th location.
DigitalOcean recently raised an $83 million Series B led by Access Industries, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz. Canada was naturally the next best country to launch in, as CEO and co-founder Ben Uretsky says that Canadian users make up DigitalOcean’s third largest customer segment.
“We have a number of considerations for going into any market. These can range from customer demand to local privacy laws; from lack of viable alternatives to feeling like a local presence can really benefit the local startup community,” said Uretsky. “In my opinion, this last reason was the most important in terms of going into Canada. Our users there make up our third largest customer segment, and there are nearly half a million active cloud developers that DigitalOcean can help to deploy and scale their applications.”
As for why the company decided to launch their first Canadian location in Toronto, Uretsky says it was the best choice for serving as many locations as possible. “It’s the best networking hub, that can reach both east and west across Canada,” said Uretsky. “So having a facility here will also help other developers in cities like Montreal, Vancouver, and Quebec to have greater connectivity.”