Wednesday was a big day for 1&1 Internet Inc. First the company announced its new premium range of dedicated servers. Then the company and the Lenexa Chamber of Commerce celebrated the official opening of the new 1&1 Data Center with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Lenexa, Kansas facility.

Thursday the celebration continued – 1&1 announced its new eShop packages and also gave members of the media a grand tour of the Lenexa building.

Germany... and Kansas?

The new 1&1 Data Center, the first outside Germany, is less than 40 miles from the North American offices of Linux New Media and Linux Pro Magazine.

When 1&1 decided to open its first data center outside of Germany, why did it pick Lenexa, Kansas? For one thing, Kansas offers a safe location for a data center and a reliable power supply. Because it's the second largest railroad hub in the US, the Kansas City area is an "apex of data connection", with fiber lines running parallel to the railroads. The company also says that the Kansas location makes it possible to have equal latency for both the East and West Coasts.

Security is tight – all areas have access control, and cameras monitor the building inside and out. Currently, there are five server rooms, each of which feeds from its own electrical room. Two are built out and there's plenty of room to expand. Three mechanical rooms provide air handling, water, fire extinguishing, and air conditioning.

The generators are tested monthly under a live load for 10 minutes. Each one holds 800,000 gallons of fuel on site and can run 6-7 days without refueling – and they are loud. "The neighbors are going to hate us," says Thorsten Ziegler, the Head of Facilities.

In reality, the neighbors should love 1&1. The company uses local technology and staff. Technical staff members work on site in Lenexa, and other US employees, such as marketing personnel, work out of the Pennsylvania office.

1&1's US General Manager, Sebastian Moser, says about half of US customers choose Linux for hosting, compared to about 90 percent in Europe. He says the people in Germany tend to distrust Microsoft, and the government also leans toward Linux. Mosser says that Linux plays a big role at 1&1. The company uses its own Debian-based Linux, which helps them offer lower pricing. Also, Linux just performs better. "You can host more customers on a Linux server," he says.

Going Big with Small

Oliver Mauss, CEO of 1&1 Internet Inc., was on site for the official opening and new Lenexa facility tour. Mauss says the vision for the company is to be the "leading provider of hosted solutions for small business users and ambitious consumers." He says the company is already the world's largest full-service hosting provider, and their ambition is to have the largest international footprint of all web hosts.

According to Mauss, the majority of 1&1's 700,000 US customers are small- and medium-size businesses (SMBs) with fewer than 50 employees. He says that strategic areas for growth in the SMB market includes reaching customers who don't currently have a web presence by offering easy-to-use, simple web products and advertising packages for "Internet beginners." Mauss says 1&1 can reach SMBs with an existing web presence through the company's SaaS (software as a service) solutions, such as the MailXchange collaboration tools, eShops, and business applications. The SaaS market is growing, Mauss says, particularly in the SMB market.

Only two days ago, the ribbon was cut and the US location officially opened, but don't think that 1&1 has any plans to kick back in Kansas and relax at the new facility. The company is moving full steam ahead and has big plans for the immediate future. Perhaps it's fitting that when people think of Kansas, they think of tornadoes – 1&1 is hitting the US web hosting market just as strong.