The Internet infrastructure managed services provider Q9 Networks (www.q9.com) announced on May 27 that the Toronto-based SPi Group (www.thespigroup.com) has selected Q9 Networks to provide managed infrastructure services for Ontario's retail electricity market data clearinghouse. The multi-year agreement will provide the SPi Group with Q9's completely managed, high-availability environment including servers, bandwidth, firewalls and back-up and restore services, ensuring the uninterrupted functioning of Ontario's retail electricity market data clearinghouse.
The EBTx Data Clearinghouse, which has operated since March 2002, connects the information systems of 70 different local distribution companies and energy retailers, including Direct Energy, Toronto Hydro and Hydro One. The system handles 100 percent of retail market data for nearly one million Ontarians.
Tim Fry, CIO of the SPi Group, said that the SPi Group selected Q9 because of its unsurpassed connectivity, redundancy, back-up and fail-over services, and that the performance and capacity of Q9's infrastructure will also help support the expected expansion of SPi's operations resulting from the forthcoming implementation of Ontario's Smart Meter Initiative.
