Trend Micro has expanded its Canadian presence with the opening of a new research centre in Toronto’s Liberty Village neighbourhood. 

The new Toronto facility is part of a network of 15 research centres worldwide, and joins a similar facility at the company’s Ottawa Canadian headquarters, which heads up  the company’s cloud security efforts. The new Toronto location will focus heavily on security after zero-day — not so much hunting down new attacks, but dissecting both software patches and the malware that seeks to exploit the vulnerabilities those patches correct, with an eye on ensuring Trend’s wares can offer protection to customers who aren’t willing or able to patch right away, said Mike Gibson, vice president of threat research for the company.

And while the space is primarily there as a space for researchers — many are the 20-plus Telus Security Lab staff sent to Trend Micro in a deal earlier this year — the company also designed the space to be a pretty open 22,000 square foot space that can be used for training and education for customers and partners alike.

“It’s great to have a place to host events in Toronto where our customers and partners can come for meetings and for training,” said Marcia Sequeira, country manager for Trend Micro Canada. “It’s a great place to host events we’ll leverage this space as much as possible.”

Keeping the company’s research staff in close contact with customers and partners is also important, added Gibson.

“If we don’t connect our research back to what our customers deal with day to day, we’re going to miss the mark,” he said.

The new facility includes some elements that are common across Trend Micro — in fact, all current Trend facilities feature the same type of granite at their reception desk — and some elements that are distinctly Canadian, such as the maple floors. 

One common element serves as both an employee perk and a memorial to a company icon. Company CTO Raimund Genes was also a passionate pinball aficionado, and sine his passing last year, Trend offices — Toronto included — have added pinball machines in his honour.

Next steps for Trend Micro in Toronto include plans to build an executive briefing centre in the city. Sequeira said they’re already working on a site for a briefing centre, but that Toronto makes a lot of sense for it.

“If our customers don’t have their headquarters here, they definitely have an office here,” she said.

The company’s longtime Ottawa headquarters is also currently being renovated to give the vendor more space and a more modern look. Globally, Trend has plans to add 500 people by the end of the year, about 50 of which will be in Canada, Sequeira said.