Savvis -- Data center business continues to improve

Savvis Inc's (NASDAQ: SVVS) business continues to improve, supporting the view that the data center business is a real business. As we have blogged about Savvis and Equinix Inc (NASDAQ: EQIX) in the past, these are two pure-play data center companies that were able to restructure their balance sheets in the post-tech & telecom bubble of the late 1990s. Here are some of the numbers for Savvis:

• Savvis revenue jumped 15%, with adjusted EBITDA jumping 55% to $123 million
• Revenue continued to shift to higher-end product lines, moving up the value chain to managed VPN and hosting services
• EBITDA for the fourth quarter jumped 67%
• Savvis was able to sell a subsidiary for $125 million which can be used to expand its core hosting businesses

The power of Savvis' model is that it can move its customers up the value chain which allows the company to grow revenue and EBITDA for a number of years.

For example, managed hosting generates $4 versus every $1 dollar earned for a commodity hosting business. In addition, for new services that Savvis will be able to sell to customers in 2008 on its upgraded infrastructure, that number goes up to $8 for every dollar of commodity services.

Savvis said by increasing co-location space and moving up the value chain, it can easily drive hosting revenue above $ 1 billion. High-end hosting and managed services is a real growth business. Stay focused on both Savvis and Equinix.