// BY THE NUMBERS
Fleet operating metrics
Across active engagements, today.
SME-DC-HOST
99.99%
Host cluster availability
SME-DC-RTO
< 4 hr
Tier-1 recovery time
SME-DC-LOSS
0
Data loss incidents on record
04 / 06Data Centre
Private cloud, hybrid, or managed (your call).
Virtualisation, storage, and DR, with Canadian sovereignty options built in.
- VCF Certified
- NSX-T Expert
- Veeam VMCE
// THE WORK
Three pillars. One operator.
Virtualisation, storage, and continuity. Built with Canadian sovereignty options where residency is non-negotiable.
- 1
Virtualisation
VMware VCF, NSX-T, vSAN on Cisco UCS and HPE. Multi-tenant, segment-aware, monitored from cluster to VM.
- host availability
- 99.99%
- 2
Backup and DR
Veeam, Pure, Dell PowerStore. RPO and RTO matched to your tier, tested quarterly, not just promised.
- RTO for tier-1
- < 4 hr
- 3
Colo and migration
Colo strategy, legacy decommissioning, and lift-without-shift moves. Inventory first, surprises last.
- data loss incidents
- 0
// THE PROOF
Floor to fabric. Quietly.
What private cloud and DR look like when the migration is boring, the runbooks are signed, and the auditor leaves early.
// IN PRODUCTION
Sovereignty by default. DR tested, not promised.
The best data-centre migration is the one nobody on the floor notices. We inventory every dependency first, so the only evidence of a cutover is a tidier asset spreadsheet on Monday.
- VCF Certified
- NSX-T Expert
- Veeam VMCE
- Canadian Data Resident
// THE DEEP DIVE
The data centre, kept boring.
The long-form context behind the work. Written by the engineer who runs the engagement, not a marketing team.
Still relevant, cloud-first or not.
For Canadian enterprises with regulated data, latency-sensitive workloads, or hardware-bound legacy systems, the data centre is not optional. SMEnode builds private and hybrid platforms on VMware VCF, NSX-T, and vSAN, running on Cisco UCS or HPE hardware. The right answer is rarely all-cloud or all-on-prem. It is the workload-by-workload calculation, made honestly.Hybrid is not multi-cloud.
Multi-cloud means workloads run across two or more public clouds. Hybrid means workloads cross the public-private boundary, usually because residency, latency, or licensing demands it. SMEnode designs the boundary itself: the network fabric that bridges them, the identity that travels across, and the DR plan that survives a single-region outage on either side.DR that actually works.
Most DR plans are tested once a year, written by a team that no longer works at the company, and dependent on systems that have since been decommissioned. SMEnode rebuilds DR as a living artefact: documented RPO and RTO per tier, quarterly failover tests with sign-off, and backup vaults on Veeam, Pure, or Dell PowerStore that survive a ransomware event because they are immutable, not just remote.Rack hall
// THE METHOD
How a data-centre engagement runs.
Inventory first, surprises last, the migration nobody on the floor notices. We catalogue every host, datastore, and dependency before we plan a single move, because the surprises in a data-centre migration are the ones nobody wrote down. Each step below carries its own sign-off, from tier classification through tested failover. Sovereignty is a default rather than an add-on, so we document where every copy of your data lives.
- Step 01
Inventory and dependency map
Every host, datastore, and application dependency catalogued before we plan a move. Tier classification drives the RPO and RTO targets we design against.
- Step 02
Platform design
VMware VCF, NSX-T, and vSAN topology on Cisco UCS or HPE, with the public-private boundary, identity path, and DR plan drawn for your residency rules.
- Step 03
Migrate and decommission
Wave-planned cutovers in maintenance windows, legacy SAN and kit retired on schedule. Immutable backup vaults on Veeam, Pure, or Dell PowerStore stood up in parallel.
- Step 04
Test and sign off
Quarterly failover tests with documented sign-off, monitoring from cluster to VM, and runbooks that survive the team that wrote them.
// QUESTIONS
Data-centre questions, answered straight.
The questions we hear before a first data-centre call. Every answer is written by the engineer who runs the migration.
For regulated data, latency-sensitive workloads, or hardware-bound legacy systems, yes. The right answer is rarely all-cloud or all-on-prem; it is a workload-by-workload calculation. We build private and hybrid platforms on VMware VCF, NSX-T, and vSAN, and we tell you honestly which workloads should stay and which should move.
Multi-cloud runs workloads across two or more public clouds. Hybrid crosses the public-private boundary, usually because residency, latency, or licensing demands it. We design the boundary itself: the network fabric that bridges them, the identity that travels across, and the DR plan that survives a single-region outage on either side.
We rebuild DR as a living artefact: documented RPO and RTO per tier, quarterly failover tests with sign-off, and immutable backup vaults on Veeam, Pure, or Dell PowerStore. Immutable means the vault survives a ransomware event because it cannot be altered, not merely because it sits in another location.
Migrations are wave-planned from a full inventory and dependency map, cut over in maintenance windows. Legacy SAN and kit retire on schedule once the new platform is validated. The aim is a move nobody on the floor notices, with the only evidence being a tidier asset spreadsheet on Monday.
Yes, sovereignty is a default rather than an add-on. We design the platform and DR topology around your residency rules, keeping regulated data Canadian-resident and documenting where every copy lives. For Bill C-26 sectors, we map the residency obligations during discovery and build to them from day one.
// KEEP EXPLORING
Where this work connects.
These disciplines share the same senior team and tend to land together. Follow the thread to the next one.
- 01FLAGSHIPEnterprise NetworkingEnterprise networking in Canada, designed and built by CCIE architects. Data centre fabric, SD-Access, and 24/7 support. Talk to an architect today.
- 06LIFT AND RESHAPECloudAWS, Azure, and GCP. Landing zones, migrations, and FinOps. Canadian-region-first when residency matters.
- 03REGULATEDComplianceWe handle SOC 2 compliance the build-side way, closing control gaps and packing evidence auditors trust.