US data center provider Quality Technology Services announced a new expansion in the Silicon Valley and fresh capital from a growth equity investment firm Wednesday. The announcement comes one day after Digital Realty Trust, a QTS competitor, also said it had purchased properties in the market to expand its data center footprint there.

Both providers said they observed growing demand for data center services in the region.

QTS, based in Suwanee, Ga., added 70,000 sq ft to its facility in Santa Clara, Calif., and added 15MW of power. The company said its Silicon Valley customers consisted of Web 2.0, media and entertainment and multi-national corporations. \"This most recent Santa Clara expansion demonstrates our commitment, both to our customers and to the community in which we work,\" QTS Chairman and CEO Chad Williams said in a statement.\"

The QTS data center that has previously existed there has about 40,000 sq ft of raised floor. The new space will be ready for occupancy in the first quarter of 2011.

The company plans to use the new $25m investment from General Atlantic to further expand its national footprint, which currently consists of a total of 3.5 million sq ft of data center space in 12 locations in eight states around the US.

The acquisition San Francisco-based DRT announced was a purchase of two shell buildings in Santa Clara, whose total footprint is about 82,000 sq ft. The colocation provider expects the properties to yield a total of 48,000 sq ft of data center space, consisting of six 1.1MW wholesale pods.



This is the second property acquisition DRT announced in Santa Clara this month. Earlier, it said it has purchased a 40,300 sq ft building it planned to convert to a data center with 25,500 sq ft of raised floor.

DRT currently has about 15.1 million sq ft of rentable data center space in 27 markets in North America and Europe. Of that, 1.9 million sq ft is redevelopment space.