Since Quebec is much cooler than the rest of North America, it's an attractive place for data center development that could substantially lower operating costs while increasing energy efficiency.

"What we like to say in the province of Quebec is that electricity is cheap and green, and power distribution is good, in terms of the impact on the data center," says Patrick David, president of , a real estate company specializing in complete data centers. "Basically, you don't have downtime due to lack of quality in the distribution network."

For the country as a whole, David cites four key drivers for the Canadian data center industry: the cost of electricity, the general reliability of electricity providers, the abundance of hydroelectricity-Canada is the world's-third largest generator of -and the potential to take advantage of free cooling.

How-To: