MaRS

Company Overview

Created in 2000 by a group of visionary business and community leaders concerned about Canada's performance in the innovation economy, MaRS is a non-profit innovation centre connecting science, technology and social entrepreneurs with business skills, networks and capital to stimulate innovation and develop Canada's next generation of growth companies.

MaRS connects the communities of science, business and capital and fosters collaboration among them. This happens physically by providing space at their 700,000 square foot facility to leading Canadian research labs, emerging entrepreneurs and mature companies, and more broadly through hands-on advisory services, inventive programming, structured networks and an expanding electronic community.

Business Challenge

MaRS required a high capacity bandwidth connection to extend the physical MaRS Centre to collaborators around the corner and across the globe. This included a high quality connection to provide its tenants and clients with fast and reliable access to partner institutions and researchers through the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION) and the Canadian Advanced Network and Research for Industry and Education (CANARIE). In order to adapt to the fluctuations in today's marketplace, the connection also needed to be fully scalable.

Solution & Business Benefits

As a centre of business growth and innovation in Canada, MaRS was looking for a data services provider that could provide a cost-effective solution that provided its tenants and clients with a high level, high capacity connection.

After learning more about these needs, Cogeco Data worked with the MaRS team to develop a solution that would meet the centre's needs efficiently and reliably. The high capacity connections provided by Cogeco Data allow MaRS to:

• Provide internet access for the main MaRS facility and offsite locations
• Provide connection to support the peer-to-peer network services with ORION and CANARIE
• Provide high bandwidth wide area connectivity to offsite locations
• Support a full suite of application services, including VoIP and Video Conferencing for MaRS' stakeholders and staff

One of Cogeco Data Services' main differentiators is their attitude. They provide a high level of service expected from one of the large telecoms, but without the large telecom attitude," said Robert Smith, Technology Consultant at MaRS. "Cogeco Data Services worked with us to develop a unique solution that could provide a high capacity, high quality connection and yet could grow or shrink based on market fluctuations.

MaRS' connection was put to the test in 2008 when they were the first to attempt a high definition video conference between Toronto and New Zealand, in which a Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance Executive presented a keynote address on broadband strategies to New Zealand's government and academic communities. According to Mr. Smith, the connection was absolutely "rock solid".