(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) has confirmed its plans to resume construction on a new data center in West Des Moines, Iowa that was postponed due to the recession, according to a report by Data Center Knowledge.
“Microsoft can confirm that we are building a data center in Iowa, but have no further comments at this time,” Microsoft spokesperson Monica Drake told the Des Moines Register.
First announced in July 2008, the West Des Moines data center was eventually postponed in January 2009 after the recession stalled many data center projects in an effort to slash expenses.
Now Microsoft has decided to resume the project with a tighter budget and improved design.
Last week the company told the state it was looking to construct a $100 million data center — just a fifth of its original budget — in West Des Moines, where it currently owns approximately 40 acres of land.
The company has also brought a more lightweight approach to the facility’s design which will hopefully cut costs by 50 percent.
Iowa agreed to Microsoft’s proposal to decrease the size of the data center, reducing the potential state tax credits the project could earn from $2.1 million to just $590,000, according to the report by The Register.
West Des Moines said it will also spend $8 million on infrastructure improvements for the facility, while the state Economic Development Board will likely act on a request from West Des Moines for $2 million to contribute to the $10 million in road and utility improvement costs related to the proposed data center.
The resuming of the West Des Moines data center project follows Microsoft’s announcement last month that it will construct a second data center at its site in Quincy, Washington.
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