Iowa's New Top Crop Is Server Farms 111
1sockchuck writes "Microsoft just confirmed that it will build a $500M data center in Iowa, following the lead of Google, which is nearing completion of a $600M facility in the state. Boosted by generous tax incentives and affordable power, Iowa is prevailing in a fierce competition with other states for these huge data center projects for tech titans. Iowa officials say they intend to leverage that track record to attract even more projects in a bid to transform the state into a mecca for server farms." The Economist covers this trend more broadly, focusing on Washington state and Iceland angling to become server-farm destinations.
Other factors? (Score:1, Interesting)
Now I had heard that stable geology was an important factor for large server farms. That's a minus point for Iceland, how does Iowa fare on that front?
Re:Iowa takes lead in corporate welfare (Score:3, Interesting)
You might be overestimating the construction jobs, since Microsoft is experimenting with server farms in shipping containers [datacenterknowledge.com], like those Sun Modular Datacenters. Des Moines already has massive IT infrastructure since it's the world's biggest centers for insurance data processing. They're going to use infrastructure that is already there.
No, I don't see many local jobs coming out of this. I see more strain on our local infrastructure. I see more power consumption and more pollution from coal-fired power plants.