Report: Twitter Expanding in Atlanta

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Back in September 2011 we reported that Twitter was leasing a big chunk of space in an enormous data center operated by QTS (Quality Technology Services) in downtown Atlanta, with the option to expand as it grows. It looks like the micro-blogging service is invoking that option.

The Atlanta Business Journal reports that Twitter is adding 100,000 square feet of space at the Metro Technology Center, owned by QTS, in downtown Atlanta. That type of expansion would be hard for many providers to accommodate. But Metro Tech is one of the world’s largest data centers, with more than 990,000 square feet of space. That provides lots of flexibility, as we noted last year:

"The huge Atlanta space offers plenty of room for expansion for growing tenants, which is a consideration for Twitter. That allows companies like Twitter to gradually expand their data center space and power costs over time, rather than purchasing a larger amount up front and seeing some of the capacity go unused as it ramps up its operations in the new site. QTS also offers flexible pricing on power usage, which can be attractive to companies facing rapid growth. The provider’s  PowerBank plan allows large customers to scale their available power up and down as their requirements change. "

Twitter is pursuing an East-West strategy, with server hubs on both coasts. It’s an approach followed by Internet-scale companies like Facebook and Apple, which have each supplemented their California server farms with huge data centers in North Carolina. This East-West approach places infrastructure closer to more users

Up until 2010, Twitter used managed hosting services from NTT America, housing its servers in NTT data centers in Silicon Valley and Ashburn, Virginia. In 2010, Twitter announced that it would operate its own data centers, starting with a new facility in Salt Lake City. In 20122 it leased data center space in Sacramento, Calif. with RagingWire Enterprise Solutions.