Microsoft expected to announce Des Moines data center location tomorrow
Posted by: Mark Fontecchio
data center staffing, Data Center Jobs
According to the Des Moines Register, Microsoft is expected to officially announce its plan to build its newest data center there, specifically in West Des Moines.
Microsoft had already said they were looking in the area for a suitable data center location. It is expected to compare in size to one Microsoft is building in San Antonio, Texas, and employ about 75 high-tech workers at about $70,000 a pop.
Iowa has become a popular place lately for data center facilities, with Google already there building in Council Bluffs, which is right next to Omaha, Neb., about 120 miles west of Des Moines (which in turn is about 300 miles west of Chicago, for those unfamiliar with the Midwest). Why is it popular?
- Cheap land
- Cheap electricity
- (Relatively) few natural disasters
- Plenty of colleges from which to draw a workforce.
It also doesn’t hurt that Iowa is thirsty for data centers to the point of offering financial incentives to two of the largest companies in the country (Microsoft and Google) to go there. Do those incentives benefit both sides? Not everyone agrees.
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