Archive: June, 2006

I almost went with the title “they whose name shall not be mentioned is building something big in The Dalles, Oregon” but apart from being long, I had to admit that such a title was really, really bad. But not my worst one yet! :-)

The reality of the matter is that Washington and Oregon State enjoy lots of cheap electricity (thanks Canada!), and lots of Internet fibre. For that reason, two companies which can be named: Microsoft and Yahoo! are building massive datacenters in Wenatchee and Quincy, WA. That information is public. A third company has been reported in the press to be building a complex, as pictured below, in The Dalles, Oregon. That company forced city staff to sign confidentiality agreements prior to starting their project.

In spite of those agreements, the word’s out.

So these two buildings, and a third one that’s still to come will become Google’s latest, greatest Datacenter. Apparently each building is about the size of a football field. Those cooling units on the end must are massive. Each stack is large than our office! Thanks to the NY Times for the picture.