Cloud Computing Prompts 2012 Data Center Expansion Plans

Who’s planning to build or expand data centers in the next few years? Major growth in Internet service demands and cloud computing is pushing major companies to expand or build new data centers around the world. Follow the breakdown of investments, land size and reasons for data center expansion:

2012 Data Center Expansion Plans

Google

• Dublin, Ireland: An energy-efficient, cloud computing data center on 11 acres of land with a $101 million investment. The natural cooling from Dublin’s climate saves energy by eliminating the need for chillers.
• Asia – Singapore, Hong Kong &Taiwan: A $200 million investment in three data centers to support increased demand of services via smartphones and tablet computers, and expectations to be operational in 1 to 2 years.
• Pryor, Oklahoma – Just opened a new $600 million, 130,000 square feet data center, and plans to open a second building for office space. Another energy-efficient project, the data center will be powered from a wind farm which will feed into the electrical transmission grid.

Microsoft

• Dublin, Ireland: Microsoft expects to expand its 19-acre, $500 million data center in Dublin by more than a third – similar to Google, the data center uses natural cooling without any chillers.
• West Des Moines, Iowa: $200 million facility originally started in 2008 but put on hold after the recession. The data center project started up again in 2010, and appears to be nearing completion.
• Boydton , Virginia: An expansion investment of $150 million and a planned second data center facility. With the first phase of its project requiring $499 million, Microsoft is trying to stay competitive in the cloud computing market.

Facebook

• North Carolina: Scheduled for completion by September 2013, the second data center for this social network giant will measure 300,000 square feet, same as its first data center that hasn’t even opened yet. Facebook purchased 150 acres of land and invested $450 million in their first data center. The data center will be energy-efficient and deploy evaporative cooling instead of a chiller system.

IBM

• Langfang, China: A cloud computing data center for Range Technology Development Co. Ltd. measured at 620,000 square meters and intended to serve business growth industries such as transportation, telecommunications, e-government and healthcare.  IBM’s data center business in China has reportedly tripled in the last four years.

What could be a cause of the rapid data center expansion planned for 2012 and beyond? DataCenterKnowledge.com reports that data center expansion and construction has been boosted by private equity firms and telecom company investments that have acquired established providers. A recent Data Center Market Insights survey shows over half of data center professionals planning to expand or build new data centers.

Online Tech also recently purchased a new Michigan data center located in Ann Arbor. Read our press release for more about our unique geographic advantage for IT disaster recovery and production.

Sources:
Facebook Building Second Massive Data Center in North Carolina
IBM to Build Asia’s Largest Cloud Computing Center
Google to Build Major New Data Center in Dublin
Google to Build Three Data Centers in Asia, Investment to Exceed $200M
Microsoft Steps Up Cloud Expansion Plans
Microsoft to Expand Scope of Iowa Project
2011/2012 Data Center Market Insights