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Facebook to build data center in North Carolina


cityboi

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North Carolina is quickly becoming a hub for data centers. American Express announced recently it was building a data center in Greensboro. Google is also building one in NC. Now the world's most popular social network company plans to build one in North Carolina.

http://www.news-record.com/content/2010/11/11/article/facebook_to_locate_450_million_data_center_in_nc

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North Carolina is quickly becoming a hub for data centers. American Express announced recently it was building a data center in Greensboro. Google is also building one in NC. Now the world's most popular social network company plans to build one in North Carolina.

http://www.news-reco...ta_center_in_nc

Yup, lots of data centers in NC. The google center has been open for almost two years now and Apple will begin using its data center in Maiden this month and has already planned an expansion. While they have not yet announced what they will do with the center most speculation is around it being a hub for Apple's cloud computing initiative.

Google server farm in Lenoir:

Apple server farm in Maiden:

Facebook site near Forest CIty: (the building in the map will be razed)

There are several others in addition to IBM and AMEX. Nearly all of them talk about cheap power but the biggest attraction is is reliable power. Western NC sees most of these facilities because the previous heavy users of power, furniture mills, have shut down which has left tremendous excess capacity on the grid. Some site selection analysis has alos mentioned water availability for cooling, weather (free of extreme temps), seismic stability and central location on the East coast. The unfortunate part of these is that they create very few jobs and given the typical incentives offered will pay little in the way of property tax before they become obsolete. Its also unlikely that these facilities will stimulate any sort of economic spillover since they are tightly closed shops with little human capital inside. On the plus side they represent an excellent opportunity for the governor to get on TV and talk about 21st century job growth even if its just a couple dozen mid/low level IT positions.

EDIT: My incentives rant above is not meant to suggest that these facilities are unwanted, just that I view them as a poor use of scarce incentives dollars. The return on investment (to the county and state) is very very low.

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Yep. A big reason American Express picked Greensboro for a data center is because the city was a heavy power user and has the big electric grid due to its past history in textiles. Actually I read somewhere that North Carolina ranks 2nd in the world when it comes to data centers.

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