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KomoTV.com covers the interesting situation where Microsoft and Yahoo are together in asking for Sales Tax Exemption for Data Centers in Eastern Washington.
"States such as Iowa and others have come on board with very attractive tax incentive packages to get data centers to locate in their communities," DeLee Shoemaker, Microsoft's state government affairs director, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "Washington state is no longer competitive for this type of business."
In response, Gov. Chris Gregoire requested an exemption which would eliminate half the state sales tax on replacement equipment for the mammoth server farms. The exemption wouldn't affect this year's state budget, but would cost about $32 million in the next two-year period and $43 million in the 2011 to 2013 period.
Microsoft has lobbied for a 100 percent sales tax exemption.
Critics said Eastern Washington's low-cost land and clean power sources already make it an attractive location for data centers, without a tax break.
I just got back from a trip to Columbia Basin (home of the new data center construction). The critics have no idea how competitive the data center site selection is, and how this sends a message to data center operators that the state of Washington is out to tax data centers.
The State hit Yahoo with the 7.9 state sales tax right after Yahoo opened their new data center.
Surfing Yahoo's corporate blog, I found their blog entries on their data centers they opened in Central Washington in 2006 and 2007.
Their latest in Quincy.
Our second data center in Central Washington is open for business! Earlier this month we hosted more than 250 local community members and officials, contractors, and construction crew in Quincy, Washington to celebrate the opening of our first data center built from the ground up. We take great care to find the right combination of fiber connectivity, network availability, low cost of power, land and operations, and a skilled workforce to operate a state-of-the-art facility when looking for new data center locations. In Quincy and nearby Wenatchee (where we opened a data center last November), we not only found all the right resources, we were also embraced by a welcoming community.
And, their first in Wenatchee.
Our facility makes use of “green” initiatives to help us efficiently use resources. We are using hydroelectric power, which is plentiful in this area, and our building uses the cold external air to cool the inside of the data center, a special design element that helps reduce electricity needs and control cooling costs.
In addition Yahoo!'s Director of Climate and Energy strategy has a podcast.
-This Podcast features an interview with Christina Page, Yahoo!’s (YHOO) Director of Climate and Energy Strategy discussing their mandate and progress on becoming "carbon neutral”.
Christina speaks passionately about their projects in India and Brazil equivalent to taking 35,000 cars off the road or turning off the lights on the Vegas strip for two months.
Source: http://cleanenergynews.blogspot.com/2007/10/recent-podcast-with-christina-page.html
Found this graphic on Capital Expenditures (Source: Morgan Stanley, Thomson, Morningstar) for Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, eBay, and Amazon. Eyeballing the below graphic it looks Google and a combined Microsoft/Yahoo are equal.
Again thanks to the analysts at www.t1r.com for sending me the local paper article about Google's data center in Lenoir, NC. It's great the press is on top of this. My previous post on why 200 employees has had a of traffic, and this one should get your attention as well.
The globally ambitious, California-based Internet giant is working to establish itself in a close-knit world that's decidedly un-Silicon Valley, mixing with local civic groups and donating charity Christmas trees for a public display, amid strict secrecy the company says its project requires.
Lenoir native Stephen Clay, 57, is so pleased about Google's arrival that he hung a "Clay Insurance Welcomes Google" banner outside his business near downtown. He also attended a Google AdWords training seminar to learn about how its advertising works.
But he and others said they still wish they knew more about the center and how it will benefit the community. Visitors aren't allowed on the construction site, which is ringed with barbed wire.
Residents who have tried to sneak a closer peek say they've been run off by security guards. And employees are limited in what they can say about the project's specifics.
"People talk about it all the time," said Anita Watters, 40, the assistant manager of Miller Hill Grocery, just up the street from the data center. " `Area 51.' It's all this secretive stuff. They're so hush-hush about what they're doing over there ... I hear all kinds of (speculation)."
The most interesting nugget though is that Google has hired a former state senator to manage the community relations. It's a small price to hire the senator to protect google's 30 year $165 million tax break.
The Lenoir project sparked criticism after it was announced last year, in part because it received state and local incentives valued at up to $165 million over 30 years.
As a result, Google has worked to improve its outreach. In April, it hired consultant Matt Dunne, a former Vermont state senator and gubernatorial candidate whose career has focused on bringing together entrepreneurship, community service and politics, to listen to residents and inform them about the company.
Yet he must also manage expectations and explain the competitive reasons data centers are built and operated in secrecy.
In Lenoir, Dunne said, he's encountered a mix of hope and concern: Hope that Google will single-handedly transform the economy and worries that the company won't hire any local workers; excitement about a second building phase and concern that Google employees won't live in or near Lenoir.
Google is not going to be another Broyhill or Bernhardt - furniture companies that for decades were dominant and paternalistic employers in the region - nor is it moving its headquarters to town. Though large, the data center will employ about 200 people, not 8,000, Dunne said.
I wonder how much pressure Google is going to be on to prove they have 200 employees. In this article they listed 3 Google employees, 197 more to go. If the press could get access to the permits they could see the # of parking spaces applied for.
Google declined to say how large the data centers will be, but permits on file with Caldwell County call for one $15.4 million, 139,797-square-foot building and another, $24.5 million, 337,008-square-foot building.
Those permits, incidentally, are not listed under Google, but under the name Lapis LLC. Ask to make a copy, and you'll be told it needs to be cleared by a lawyer first.
"I just wanted to be a part of (Google), a part of the culture," said Jennifer Crump, 35, of Morganton, a former stay-at-home mom who earned an associate's degree in information technology and was hired earlier this month as a data center technician assistant. "It's so different from what we have around here."
Lenoir native Walter Brameld, 30, worked in an Atlanta data center but got burned out and moved home, figuring he'd have to take "a McJob." Then he found out about Google. Once the site location became public, he'd drive past it to reassure himself it was really coming. He was hired in October.
Jacobik, 42, an Air Force veteran and father of seven who previously managed a data center for Oracle in Austin, Texas, oversees Google's Lenoir operation and another planned outside of Charleston. In and around Lenoir alone, he has addressed more than a dozen civic groups, including Rotary, Kiwanis and Ruritan clubs.
