This week Iowa’s governor, Chet Culver, confirmed that Microsoft will be building a new data center in the state. At a cost of $100 million, the modular data center is expected to use significantly less power and water than other facilities and produce less waste.

And if the expected completion date of spring 2011 is any indication, this will also be one of the fastest data center construction projects ever. Microsoft originally intended to build the project in West Des Moines in 2008, but halted construction because of the recession.

Microsoft’s decision to recommence building the plant is a good sign for the economy. Obviously Redmond thinks there will be more demand for technology in the near feature. The data center will create around 25 jobs that pay an average of $31.04 per hour in benefits and wages.

Source | Data Center Knowledge

Continue reading: Microsoft to build Iowa data center

Millions of people around the globe watch the Olympics on television every two years, but few think about what goes on behind the scenes to make the event happen. Meet Digital Beijing, the mega data center built exclusively to power the 2008 Olympic Games in China.

At 1.05 million square feet, the building is designed to look like a giant circuit board from the outside. Its 11 stories bring it to a height of 187 feet.

The facility provided a number of services for the Olympics, including communications transmission and IT services. No longer needed for the games, it is being used by the Beijing government as an emergency response center and a place to backup data.

A complete overview of the building’s design can be seen in this video produced by the architect, Studio Pei-Zhu

Source | Data Center Knowledge

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: The data center that powered the Olympics

In an effort to increase efficiency and reduce costs, IT companies will do anything to save a few pennies. Microsoft is ready to take things to a whole new level by building a data center with no walls or roof.

Such an outdoor server room would not leave the hardware exposed, however. Microsoft currently builds data centers by placing hundreds of server-laden shipping containers together in an open-floor building. The Redmond company thinks it can cut cuts even further by simply removing the building from the equation.

According to Debra Chrapaty, a leading figure in the company’s infrastructure plans, building a facility without walls and a roof would cut costs by a third and construction time in half.

The servers will still be protected by the shipping containers that enclose them, but my guess is a fence of some sort will need to be erected. Shipping containers are designed to sit on a ship’s deck exposed to the elements, so they should do a fine job of replacing an actual building.

Source | NY Times

Continue reading: Microsoft to build outdoor data center

California’s Silicon Valley has always been home to more data centers than any other place in the United States, but lately the region has been feeling a bit under-loved and left out as developers choose other locations to house their servers.

Why is the Silicon Valley less desirable than before? It’s not. The matter can be traced back to one thing: money. Not only are data centers more expensive to construct and run in California, but capital-strapped developers are being given financial incentives to build elsewhere.

Most notably, President Obama’s stimulus plan is spawning a flurry of data center construction in northern Virginia, an economically depressed area. At least two companies, DuPont and Terremark, have halted plans for Silicon Valley facilities and moved their dollars to the East Coast.

Virginia isn’t the only state experiencing a silicon boom. Yahoo is currently building a large data center in North Carolina, and New Jersey recently became home to a Wall Street server facility.

It’s no surprise that as America’s computing needs grow, data center construction will continue to be more diversified than in the past– especially when there is an incentive involved.

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Silicon Valley losing new data centers to rest of country

L.L. Bean may be famous for its outdoor products, but now it’s also known for bringing the outdoors into computing. The New England clothing retailer recently finished work on an 18,000-square-foot facility that is a step up from the drab design of most server rooms.

Located in Freeport, Maine, the data center was purposely built in a wilderness area and provides occupants with plenty of natural views and light. As Rocko Graziano, the man in charge of L.L. Bean’s infrastructure put it, “You don’t mind being cooped up in a three-hour planning meeting; when your mind wanders you can look outside and see the clouds flow by.”

All wood used in construction was forested locally and the facility is one of only eight in the United States to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. Pictures are available here.

Normally a company will worry about cost first and the welfare of its employees second. There’s no denying that most data centers become boring places after the initial “wow” reaction to the hardware fades away, but in this case, it looks like L.L. Bean wants to keep its server technicians happy and go green.

Source | Greener Computing

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: L.L. Bean builds green data center

Yes, even the mighty New York Stock Exchange can’t operate without its share of servers and switches. A 400,000-square-foot data center is currently being constructed in Mahwah, New Jersey to support risk-management software and complex algorithms for traders.

The center is located only 35 miles from Manhattan to ensure there is as little delay in data transmission as possible. When you run the world’s largest stock exchange, time is of the essence.

Built on the site of an old quarry, the data center will be finished next year. It will hold several football fields worth of hardware and cables. The cost of the project hasn’t been released, but my guess it isn’t cheap.

Sources | NYConvergence and WSJ

Continue reading: Data center for NYSE under construction in New Jersey