Similar businesses are on the way—statistics from the local economic development office indicate that nearly 20 percent of the 12,800 new business licenses doled out in 2007 were to high-tech firms.

This growth is contagious. Robert Fine, director of economic development for the regional district of the central Okanagan Valley, which covers the cities of Kelowna, Westbank and Peachland, says that according to a Canadian growth index that measures factors including unemployment rate, business starts and building permits, the Okanagan economy has grown by a staggering 11.1 percent since 2005, in step with growth in other Western Canadian cities such as Vancouver and Calgary.

"We think the local economy is going to slow down, but everything around here keeps growing," he says. At a time when real estate is slumping in the U.S., Okanagan real estate is skyrocketing—the current median price is $539,000, up from $469,000 in 2006 and $374,000 in 2005.

Capitalizing on Environmental Stability

All this growth is fine and good, but what makes the Okanagan such a great spot for data services? Environmental stability, for one.

Geologic surveys indicate that the Okanagan is at least 150 miles from the nearest earthquake zone. Climate experts also have said that the region's location in the high desert makes it safe from other disasters such as floods, tornadoes and major storms.

Perhaps the only natural risk: wildfires, which ravaged the local countryside in the summer of 2003 but left most of the urban areas relatively unscathed.

"We considered the threat [of fire], but when we assessed it against threats in other geographies and other regions, it was far down on the scale," says Rick Ellery, territory services leader for the British Columbia division of IBM Canada. "Even with the fires, the Okanagan is one of the safest spots in North America to build a data center."

Cheap and Plentiful Power

The area offers another key ingredient to large-scale data storage: cheap and plentiful power.