Microsoft to build $500 million data center in our home town Chicago

Posted by Mike Snyder on November 11, 2007  |  Comments (0)

I saw in the news this week that Microsoft is planning to build a massive $500 million data center in the Chicago suburb Northlake. I wonder if they will host any of the CRM Live servers there?!

Microsoft plans massive data center here

By Eddie Baeb
Crain's Chicago Business
Nov. 05, 2007

Microsoft Corp. plans to open a massive data center in Northlake next year that will be central to the software giant's war with Google Inc. for Internet supremacy.

The structure, large enough to hold eight football fields, could cost more than $500 million to build, sources familiar with the plan say. That would rank it as the most expensive construction project in the suburbs currently, according to local real estate executives.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft is building Internet infrastructure around the country to better compete with Google's and Yahoo Inc.'s search engines and to provide more Web-based services. The west suburban data center would be Microsoft's third nationwide since its push began in earnest last year.

The data center will house thousands of computer servers that process Internet activity and other network services. Despite its size, the center probably will employ no more than 75 people to operate the servers.