Asian Nations Battle for Google Data Center 130
1sockchuck writes "Google is pitting foreign governments against one another in a battle for a major new data center in Asia. In the past week, both the prime minister of Malaysia and economic minister of Taiwan have said their countries are leading candidates for the Google project, with Japan, South Korea, India and Vietnam also mentioned as contenders in an 18-nation site selection process. Google typically invests $600 million in each new data center. Tech companies often use multi-site searches as a tool to coax incentives out of local governments, which sweeten their offers to outbid rivals from other regions. Google's Asian initiative appears to be taking this strategy to a new level, coaxing heads of state to invest political capital in their lust for one of Google's mega-datacenters."
Suitable Privacy Invasion Laws (Score:3, Interesting)
Those countries that show any signs of implementing strict laws to protect the privacy of their citizens as well a enforcing strict limits upon how personally, psychological targeted marketing will be, will consider themselves right out of the running.
I would personally hope that Australia is right out of the running and remains so, it would be embarrassing to be considered a suitable data warehouse for proctology inc.
The Great American Jobs Scam (Score:1, Interesting)
Next time you hear a politician bragging about how he/she pulled in "jobs" via tax breaks and the like, check out The Great American Jobs Scam (http://www.amazon.com/Great-American-Jobs-Scam-Corporate/dp/1576753158 ).
Basically, the job figures are always exaggerated and the whole thing is a ripoff for the taxpayers. If you want an example of a different "save the jobs" schtick, check out the massive half a billion dollar bill for Connecticut [boston.com], or more specifically, for Electric Boat.
The article talks about "saving" jobs at Electric Boat (along with a bunch of bullshit about Keeping Up With The Joneses, aka the Chinese. Yup, you have Connecticut to thank for keeping us protected from those evil Chinese and their subs.) How many jobs at Electric Boat? 7,600. $500M divided by 7600 is roughly equal to 65 million dollars a person.
There are 3.4 million people in Connecticut, so $147/head. Isn't it a shame that Connecticut residents couldn't pony up that $150/person, themselves? Is anyone really stupid enough to think that even the slimmest percentage of that $500M will go back to the Connecticut state economy, when all EB does is slap stuff together that was made elsewhere?
I think the closest they'll come is in the form of taxes on the property taxes of Electric Boat executives' multi-million-dollar homes.
Re:Why not the Philippines? (Score:5, Interesting)
A very good friend of mine is a Filipino, and the first time I talked about RPGs he thought I was referring to rocket-propelled grenades. Seriously. (And he used to live in the safe area.)
Things are more stable now (especially around Manilla), but there are regions you don't want to go to. A lot of people also drive around in cars with tinted windows: the police are less likely to pull you over because they don't know who's inside and don't want to get in trouble for pulling over the wrong person. Again, better then what was happening in the '80s, but hardly ideal.
My best guess for the winner would be Japan, especially in a southern region. You don't have to worry about the government going into your data (like China), and most of the other countries are with-in a decent fibre run of Japan. Taiwan you have to worry about hurting China's feelings (and the possibility of an eventual invasion). Quite a few cities in S. Korea are with-in artillery distance of N. Korea (even though relations have improved recently).
India should probably get its own, separate, data centre, with a bunch of fibre connections perhaps going to the MIddle East (especially to the UAE).
My $0.02.
Re:List of Google data centers? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Why not the Philippines? (Score:1, Interesting)
Our rebels here dont even have RPGs.
Probably you asked someone who have watched movies like Black Hawk Down, who played games like CounterStrike, and an airsoft player.
Don't be too quick to conclude that we are exposed with weapons.
Re:Poor Taiwan... (Score:3, Interesting)
It's extremely unfortunate that Taiwan still has this reputation as a backwards nation and demonstrates the ignorance Americans have regarding the nation.
Ummm...are you responding to anyone in particular? Because I haven't seen anyone actually make that claim in this thread. Nor have I heard that for, say, the last 20 years.
The second problem is that Taiwanese people and companies in particular are exceedingly cheap. It's not so much that they cut corners like the Chinese do, but rather that they're not willing to spend a dollar more than is necessary to produce an acceptable product. This means their identity and branding is utter crap. It may seem insignificant but it basically insures that few people overseas every recognize the quality of their products. Related to that is quality product design which is sorely lacking.
In my experience, one place where some Taiwanese electronics manufacturers go wrong is in misunderstanding the Western market. Americans in particular expect good customer support. That does cost money and is consistent with what you're saying. But when I get a product (say, a graphics card) made by a fairly prominent Taiwanese manufacturer, and the manual has clearly not been proofread by anyone who speaks decent English...that doesn't inspire confidence.
Other than that, I don't think Americans have formed much of any opinion, overall, about Taiwan. If anything, most Americans confuse it with Thailand and think it's the same place.