Microsoft to Build $500M Data Center in Iowa

Redmond, WA-based Microsoft has announced that West Des Moines, IA will be the home of its fifth new data center to launch in the past 18 months. The $500 million facility will house servers that keep the company’s Internet services humming, such as search engines and email. The design hasn’t been revealed, but the company is expected to continue its use of shipping containers with hard-wired servers ready to plug-and-play into the building as reported in a Chicago Tribune article.

Iowa Governor Chet Culver says the software giant is helping him in his commitment to bring high-quality innovative jobs to Iowa.  Culver signed tax incentives last winter -- on electricity, computer equipment and cooling towers -- to encourage Microsoft to come to Iowa, however an Iowa spokeswoman has indicated that the company has not submitted an application for financial or tax incentives.   "The addition of companies such as Microsoft and Google (which is also building a data center) illustrate the continued growth of Iowa’s information technology sector and the attractiveness of Iowa’s business climate, quality of life and strong workforce," says Michael Tramontina, director of the Iowa Department of Economic Development.

The property is going on a 42-acre site southwest of the Booneville Road and Xavier Place intersection and will reportedly employ up to about 75 workers making roughly $70,000 a year.  Microsoft said it selected Iowa "after evaluating a number of locations across the country." The company is also going into similar data centers in Northlake, IL; San Antonio, Quincy, WA and Dublin, Ireland. The property here will be modeled like the others, such as the Chicago-area site, which will have up to 220 containers with up to 2,000 servers each. The software company has increased its efficiency from connecting one server at a time, to large containers full of servers connected all at once.

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