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

Hosting provider Terremark constructed the data center for the United States government as a cloud computing facility.

Built like a bunker, the center boasts reinforced concrete walls, motion-sensing cameras, armed dogs, and bomb-sniffing dogs. “This building is like a secure bunker, and the campus is like a military base,” the company’s senior Vice President, Norm Laudermilch, bragged. All vehicles entering the facility are thoroughly searched.

The data center may be secure on the outside, but I bet its much more vulnerable virtually. Armed guards and concrete are useless against hackers, who in this day and age seem to find a way around any security system. Still, it’s important that the government have the more secure infrastructure available.

Source | InformationWeek