July 25, 2006 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Search engine giant Google (google.com) is reported to be strategically building a worldwide string of data centers, including a soon-to-be-complete site in The Dalles, Oregon, in an effort to increase user response time.
The extensive new complex will handle billions of search queries a day and a growing portfolio of other Internet services. It will take advantage of the region's large surplus of fiber optic networking, left over from the dot-com boom.
Google is estimated to have more than 450,000 servers dispersed over at least 25 locations worldwide. The company has major operations in Ireland, and has recently completed a big computing center in Atlanta, Georgia. Connecting these centers is a high-capacity fiber optic network that Google has assembled over the last few years.
The center in The Dalles will open in stages throughout the next year. The project has already had a major local impact, helping to create hundreds of construction jobs and boost local real estate prices by 40 percent. The facility is expected to create 60 to 200 permanent jobs in a town of 12,000 residents.
