Google recognises Toronto’s tech potential
Following years of steady investment in Canada, Google recently announced that it had chosen Toronto to become a new Cloud Platform region.
Stating that Google would be working very closely with the region to develop products, services and capabilities that were specialised and optimised specifically for the Canadian market.
Coming two years after the company made its initial venture into the country with its Montreal office, the Toronto office will be fully equipped to meet its customers’ needs, whether they are individuals, companies, organisations or institutions.
Toronto: an up-and-coming scene
Arguably a very logical choice for Google, the Toronto region has seen some very exciting development within its tech sector recently.
With a 16.6% increase in overall hiring during 2019 and an 84.6% rise from 2014 levels, Toronto offers a diverse environment of engaging local culture and a well-educated workforce, making it an ideal place to build a tech-based company.
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Having a global giant like Google see potential in the area lends industry credence to this growth and is widely being seen as a net positive for businesses in the area.
Regarding the expansion, David Furlong, SVP at Banque Nationale, said, “Google Cloud’s Toronto region will benefit the Canadian financial industry, enabling highly regulated organizations to perform disaster recovery while meeting data residency requirements.”
Andrew McCormack, CIO at Payments Canada, was similarly enthused, “Google’s new Toronto cloud region will help us continue to modernise our infrastructure, strengthen our resilience, and create a digital platform for innovation.”
The seed of a smart city?
In a recent article by CBC, Alex Norman, Co-Founder of Tech Toronto, believed that the conditions were perfect for the city to start sharing the limelight with technology meccas like San Francisco and New York.
"We've created the right environment where people want to work, people can come work and then companies realize they can't poach talent and bring them down, they have to come here to get access to that talent."
With investment continuing to pour in, it could be that Toronto has been earmarked as a potential smart city. If this trend of widespread industry interest continues, Toronto could become highly significant in the coming years.
For more information on business topics in Canada, please take a look at the latest edition of Business Chief Canada.