Why IT Co-location Centers Will See a Boom in 2009 Despite the Macroeconomy

An example of a next-generation hosting site is ThePlanet.com Internet Services, based in Plano, Texas. This is a privately held, dedicated Web hosting company that provides an option of services, space rental or both. It is now building its seventh co-location center.

The Planet already hosts IT services for about 22,000 SMBs and houses about 6.7 million Web sites. The company recently announced installation of its first Green Chilled Water Energy System, which is  included in the environmentally friendly new 86,000-square-foot data center addition being built at its headquarters facility.

The facility will use new modular cooling technology from Turbine Air Systems and will accommodate a major expansion of its co-location services, its private racks and its Planet Northstar Managed Hosting services. The addition to the center will bring the total data center raised-floor footprint to 214,500 square feet.

VC money is now being channeled to co-location companies. In addition to the $56 million announced by i/o Data Centers, for example, DuPont Fabros ponied up a cool $22 million to purchase a 17-acre site in Santa Clara, Calif., in December 2007. The plans called for a pair of 300,000-square-foot data center buildings with a power capacity of 72.8 megawatts.

To put that into perspective, 365 Main's huge two-story, city-block-sized location in downtown San Francisco—built at the base of the Bay Bridge on solid bedrock—has a ceiling power draw of about 34 megawatts.

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