My team builds something similar at Sauce Labs. With the added fun of making it a SaaS. (HaaS?)
Our design is totally different though. Really looking forward to seeing the specs Facebook is promising, although I suspect it will be hard to apply it to different environments.
Prineville is a lovely place and as an Oregonian I'm thrilled that high tech jobs have come to a rural town that does not get many opportunities like this.
It seems a lot of data centers get built in the middle of nowhere as long as there is cheap electricity, a nice stream and cheap land --typically smallish towns outside middling cities with airports not too far. So, yeah, there are some lucky rural areas getting some technical jobs (and transplanted workers too) but they all add to the local econ.
The promise of jobs from these data centers usually comes in the form of construction work. After that, there are very few people who actually work at these places - if they could keep the lights off they would.
Yep. The datacenters in the western part of NC for Apple, Google, and Facebook are all the same. Lots of incentives from the local government with very few high-tech/high-paying jobs going along with it. So basically the company gets the land really cheap, doesn't have to pay much if any taxes, cheap electricity, and few people to hire. What's not to like if you're a high-tech company? Still, I'm sure the local construction companies benefited. And there's something to be said for raising the profile of the area.
Honestly, what's the alternative. The land would sit unused otherwise. If they did build it in a more developed area they would be competing against commercial and residential interest, and for what gain? Servers don't care about a 2 hour commute, or how far they are from the airport. In the sticks or downtown, it's the same to computers.
Now that one company has done the research of getting electricity, network backbone, roads, and other infrastructure built. Now, others can come along and build their datacenter next door because they know the infrastructure is there. Which is exactly what's happening in NC.
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[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 42.3 ms ] threadOur design is totally different though. Really looking forward to seeing the specs Facebook is promising, although I suspect it will be hard to apply it to different environments.
Now that one company has done the research of getting electricity, network backbone, roads, and other infrastructure built. Now, others can come along and build their datacenter next door because they know the infrastructure is there. Which is exactly what's happening in NC.