By Patrick Neighly, CommsDay

Google blamed the crumbling economy for postponing a $600 million data centre in Oklahoma. The facility was originally slated for completion next year but Google said financial concerns compelled it to curb its data centre rollout plans. The facility will now open its doors in 2010.

A company spokesperson told reporters Google “invested heavily in capacity to ensure we can meet existing as well as future demand. This means there is no need to make all our data centres operational from day one.”

The delay is ostensibly at odds with the latest quarterlies from data centre firms Savvis and Switch & Data. The pair yesterday posted results suggesting the segment could be immune to the worldwide financial crisis - in line with sterling figures from peer Equinix a week earlier.

Savvis’ 1¢ per share loss was better than expected. Perhaps more importantly, revenue from its financial clients rose 6% year on year despite a meltdown in that vertical, backing up predictions the data centre segment will navigate the crisis just fine.

Switch & Data was well within guidance with an EBITDA profit of $14 million on revenues of $44.1 million. The company hiked its 2008 revenue forecast to $171.5 million and said next year should generate at least $207 million thanks to newly built facilities despite widespread fears of spending cutbacks. But trims in 2009 capex plans suggest it - like Google – is scaling back on new data centres until market turmoil subsides.

YAHOO DATA CENTERS
Meanwhile, Yahoo announced a $100 million US data centre investment even as it readies a decimation of its workforce. The ailing portal plans to spend the money building new facilities in Nebraska and said the service centre would create 100 fresh jobs. Yahoo said it would house the “mission-critical facilities” in Omaha after being promised tax breaks by the state government.