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Server Farms Flourish In Iowa: Microsoft Plows $700M More Into Des Moines
1sockchuck writes "A big chunk of the Azure cloud will be living on the plains of Iowa. Microsoft will invest another $700 million to expand its Iowa data center campus near Des Moines, marking the third major server farm for the state this year. Facebook recently announced a new data center in Altoona. The same day, Google said it would put another $400 million into its facility in Council Bluffs. Why Iowa? Aggressive tax incentives and a central location to bridge the distance between these companies' east and west coast server footprints."
1. It smells like pig crap.
I love the way that the US taxpayer subsidises these huge companies, wish the had the same here in Wales UK.
Aggressive tax incentives and a central location to bridge the distance between these companies' east and west coast server footprints.
The first part is really all that mattered to them.
Come on, "bridging the distance" between the west and east coasts? We all know how fast light travels...
#DeleteChrome
"Local community colleges will pay IBM $10 million for job training expenses for its employees" Seriously? Since colleges should have educated individuals teaching students the same skills IBM probably wants, why can't the college just put the employee in their own class at no cost? I understand there will be product specific ins and outs, but that is what documentation is for. Someone with a reasonable amount of education or experience in the field shouldn't require much training. Am I missing something or is this absurd?
No, it's a completely idiotic point.
It's $20M in taxes that they wouldn't have seen anyhow if the datacenter was built in another state. But the state gains from all the income, sales, property, etc. taxes that the employees pay.
No matter how big the tax break, it's ALWAYS a net gain to the tax base.
Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so. ~ Douglas Adams
The only metric being optimised is profit for $BIGCO's owners; the wellbeing and prosperity of Iowans is irrelevant. Ask Indian farmers how Coca-Cola bottling plants (and bottled water plants) are helping THEM.
You're aware that data centres like this employ about 50 people, right? This is not a business that sustains the local economy.
Slashdot's libertarian reptile brain really should try harder.
you had me at #!
You can build underground here and not worry about heat problems. In fact if you don't insulate right, you will be quivering for heat. Also, wind and solar here are easy to farm up. They make giant wind generators here, they are amazing to see the parts for them being shipped across the highways.
Latency here is good, I can use either coast's servers without hindrance to game play. Most of our rural areas have decent Internet connections, so that you can work at a high tech place, yet have a home in "Smallville" Iowa that you can upload work from or to. High tech meets antiques. My computer desk is an old beater roll top desk that I have adapted a monitor on an arm for. Best of several worlds.
Sure, the pigs smell, but unless it's a corporate farm, the hog farms aren't that big and you can pass the smell fast enough if you have to pass by one. The industrial lots on the other hand....don't be near one.
Sure we have some fat girls, but who doesn't? We also have some very athletic farm girls who are gorgeous and could probably kick your ass and out shoot most of you "city slickers." That's extreme too, but we do have some fine women. Any university town will have your head on a swivel.
Republicans probably gave away the farm in tax breaks to lure them in. The trickle down effect is better than no effect. The economy is a knife fight here if you aren't a farmer. It's a gun fight if you are a farmer.
We also have the best tasting pork or beef you will ever sink teeth into and for us locals it's cheaper and fresh. When we grill here, it's nothing short of magical. If you go to the Iowa State Fair and try some of the State's finest grilled meats, you will be ruined for life, nothing else will be that good. Stand there, with a cold beer and cry as you enjoy it, you know there will be nothing that good pass your lips again lest you return once again. There should be a law against how good it is.
We have rivers, lakes, hunting, fishing, camping all in pristine condition, with air crisp and clean.
Now if only we had government that would legalize hemp/weed we could kick start some new industries. Iowa could grow the finest hemp/weed in the universe. If you ever see a picture of it growing wild here, the hippie in you will flip out. Think Christmas tree size only 3 times as big. Hemp production alone could produce an absurd amount of hydrocarbon, the seeds from it could be like grapes that squeeze out oil, literally. It would make a great green project. I'm shocked Iowa hasn't taken the lead in strides in this aspect. We're talking a combination petroleum and fiber industry infusion into the State. Because it's so vulnerable, they could tax hell out of it and pay some bills. They don't have to beg it in like Microsoft.
Take the Red Pill.
Yeah the tax breaks are great but the real reason is network infrastructure. Des Moines (and Omaha 3 hours to the west) sits on pretty much the biggest fiber crossroad in the country, which means that latency will be ridiculously low, which is very important if youre planning on having terabytes of data streaming out of your data center on a daily basis.
Personally I'd rather have my idiots at home glued to the TV than out doing idiotic things