Microsoft plans to build a data center in Siberia

Microsoft is discussing plans to build a data center for 10,000 servers in Irkutsk or Angarsk, said Birger Sten, director of the Russian Microsoft office. Since the news was announced during the celebrations about the fact that Microsoft has signed a framework agreement with the administration of the Irkutsk region on the full transition of all city and regional administrations to the licensed Windows and Office, it could not be taken seriously. They say that these are empty promises of Microsoft management in exchange for real money. But Birger Sten is an engineer by education (he graduated from the Norwegian Institute of Technology). In theory, he should not throw words to the wind. So, the project of building a data center in Siberia is possible at least theoretically.

This sensational news, originally published in Siberian "Kommersant" , and yesterday translated into English , quickly came to Western journalists, who instantly unearthed additional information , having received a comment from the central office of Microsoft.

So, Birger Sten said that Microsoft is developing a construction project in the Irkutsk region data center for 10 thousand servers. He explained the choice of location by the stability of the power supply. The region has extremely cheap energy, whereas such an object consumes about 50 MW of energy. Specialists from the central office confirm that the project is real, and an additional advantage of Siberia is the presence of natural cooling servers, which further reduces operating costs, because cooling accounts for a significant portion of all energy consumption in any data center.

As is known, in America, data centers are also being built in areas remote from civilization, close to large hydro and nuclear power plants. Saving on energy is more than traffic costs. Assistant Governor of the Irkutsk Region Andrei Gubov explained to journalists that the administration is ready to allocate Microsoft a land plot between Angarsk and Irkutsk. It is assumed that the data center will be connected to the Transtelecom fiber-optic line.
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In general, Microsoft has recently been actively investing in the construction of data centers (obviously, it is preparing for the transition to the Live platform). They already have two in the US, and they recently announced the construction of two more new ones - in Dublin, Ireland (100,000 servers; $ 500 million investment) and Chicago, USA. The Siberian project is an order of magnitude smaller and one and a half orders of magnitude cheaper, but even with this in mind, experts doubt that a data center may be in demand in the Siberian region, even if all the officials polls off on Office Live.

Official comment from Microsoft representatives put everything in its place. They explained that the construction of a data center in Irkutsk is no more than one of the topics that was touched upon when discussing the project for the supply of licensed software. In general, Microsoft has compiled an entire world map of suitability for the construction of data centers. There, absolutely the entire territory of the world is colored in different colors, taking into account 35 factors important for such an object (the cost of energy, the cost of water, etc.). If Siberia is in the green zone, this is a suitable reason for loud statements, so Birger Sten practically did not deceive his Siberian friends.

Business partners from Microsoft and the Irkutsk administration promised to return to this discussion in the future, after the completion of the transaction for the purchase of Windows and Office, and now, of course, no final decision has been made.