"Of all of these cities, we have the lowest vacancy rates in our data centers," he says, below five percent. Furthermore, "we have the lowest power rates except for Texas and Atlanta, but as this winter has shown, Chicago is best suited to provide the cheapest cooling."

Chicago's reputation as a data center hub is enhanced by the presence of Digital Realty Trust's Lakeside Technology Center at 350 E. Cermak Rd. on the Near South Side in the old R.R. Donnelley Co. building. At 1.1-million-square-feet and with more than 100 megawatts of power, it is one of the world's largest centers and serves as the Internet backbone for the city's commodity markets.

Investors and providers from across the US have taken notice of Chicago. For example, as reported in GlobeSt.com, Server Farm recently bought the Oak Brook Technology Center, a 194,178-square-foot, two-building office complex at 800 and 810 Jorie Blvd. in suburban Oak Brook, for $16,250,000.

Minnesota-based Mortenson recently completed a 6 megawatt private data center of about 190,000-square-feet in the northwest suburbs, and although Davis says he can't disclose the names, it also has several other local projects in various stages of development. However, the market is not quite ready to take off.

In 2006 and 2007, Davis says supply had begun to outpace demand as developers put up a significant amount of spec buildings for the data center sector. The crash left a lot of space to absorb, but now that the vacancy rate has sunk to such a low level, large private corporations are just about ready to launch new data centers for their exclusive use, and other providers will soon need new co-location data space for clients that don't want to operate their own centers.

"We're seeing a lot of people in the planning stages," he adds. "It's still a matter of putting shovels in the ground. I think things will start to break late this year and on into 2015."