For Data Centers, Google Likes the Southeast (datacenterfrontier.com)

1sockchuck writes: With new construction projects underway in Alabama and Tennessee, Google will soon have 5 of its 8 company-built U.S. data center campuses located in the Southeast. The strategy is unique among major cloud players, who typically have server farms on each coast, plus one in the heartland. Is Google's focus on the Southeast a leading indicator of future data center development in the region? Or is it simply a case of a savvy player unearthing unique retrofit opportunities that may not work for other cloud builders?

Comments

Something about eggs and a basket

[rmdingler]

FTA: It appears to be an affront to the spread 'em out theory of risk management initially adopted by Google and then copied by FB, Apple, MS,etc.

I get what they're thinking: friendly economic packages from the locals, close proximity to population centers, lots of convertible existing infrastructure... but the risks of a cataclysmic natural or anthropogenic disaster seem very real over a long enough timeline in a given region.

At this point, nothing short of their own mismanagement seems likely to upset the Google juggernaut.

It's pretty simple really...

[ndtechnologies]

The southeastern US has all of this abandoned textile infrastructure, which is much easier to retrofit into a datacenter, than it is to build a new one from scratch. That's exactly what Facebook did with their data center in my hometown of Forest City.