Microsoft's Data Centers Taking Shape

To realize the glittering promise of its Software Plus Services vision, Microsoft is building massive data centers in places like San Antonio, Chicago, and Dublin, Ireland, and plans to stuff them full of hundreds of thousands of servers to beef up its online service delivery capabilities. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is where the magic will happen, and ChannelWeb takes a peek at the concrete and steel skeletons of Microsoft's Chicago and Dublin data center projects and offers some insight into how the software giant plans to leverage them.

At left: OK, so it doesn't look like much now, but Microsoft's $500 million, 550,000 square foot data center in the Chicago suburb of Northlake, Illinois, will eventually house up to 300,000 servers, a feat made possible by Microsoft's adoption of the 'data center in a box' approach pioneered by Sun Microsystems.

Reducing consumption has become a top priority for Microsoft, and the company says it has cut power consumption in Windows Server 2008 by some 40 percent. Using the data center-in-a-box configuration, Microsoft expects to improve power efficiency from between 400 and 450 watts per foot in its active data centers, to around 1200 watts per square foot.

Microsoft's 470,000 square foot data center in Quincy, Wash., which opened in April, is situated next to a hydroelectric plant, which helps reduce the environmental impact of the center's power consumption.

Microsoft's Northlake, Ill. data center is strategically situated near high speed fiber optic lines and abundant electrical supply, which is a good thing, since 300,000 servers are going to require massive amounts of juice. The data center will reportedly employ about 75 workers.

When it opens next summer, Microsoft's Dublin, Ireland data center will be used to power Microsoft's Live Services in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

The $500 million facility is located in Grange Castle Business Park in the Dublin suburbs, and will reportedly utilize a significant degree of automation in order to keep staff levels at around 20 employees.

Dublin's cool, windy climate makes it one of the most desirable data center locations in Europe, and climate reportedly played a major role in Microsoft's decision to locate its first major data center outside the U.S. in the Irish capital.

Iceland, whose climate is similar to Ireland's, is also seeing interest from U.S. companies looking to build data centers on their soil. Last year, Microsoft and Cisco reportedly approached Icelandic officials about building data centers powered by Iceland's rich supply of geothermal and hydroelectric energy.

By using Ireland's cool air to deal with the heat of thousands of servers, Microsoft's Dublin data center is expected to be around 50 percent more energy efficient than other data centers of similar size.