As an ordinary field, it has become an ultra-modern Google data center priced at one and a half billion dollars.

Of course, the title is a little incorrect, because the field itself has not turned into anything, a data center was built on it, which will be discussed below. But the bottom line is clear: a few years ago it was a common field in Iowa, Council Bluffs, USA, in 1000 acres. Now this is a huge integrated data center, the price of which is more than a billion dollars, and the corporation continues to invest.

So, Google has become the owner of the field in 2007, paying for it, as far as can be judged, is not the highest price. In 2011, the field was still empty. But after a while, the corporation began rapid construction, and now this place is already one of the largest data centers of the corporation, with most of the infrastructure was deployed this year, at the very beginning. Three additional buildings have already been built, and several more are planned to be built - the place for them is already ready.
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In total, the corporation plans to invest in the construction of a data center in the Council Bluffs about one and a half billion US dollars. The places here, as they say, are good: the climate is relatively cool, the cost of a kilowatt of electricity is not too high, the energy infrastructure is reliable, there is a lot of land, and residents of the nearby city will only be happy to work for the company.

It is worth noting that not only the "Corporation of Good" appreciated these places. Following Google, Iowa’s data centers decided to build Microsoft and Facebook.

In addition to Council Bluffs, Google also has data centers in North and South Carolina, Oklahoma and Oregon. In total, the corporation spends about 2 billion a quarter on the construction and improvement of its data centers. At the same time, the corporation prefers to expand existing data centers rather than build new ones.



Here is a satellite photo of the company's first data center in Council Bluffs.



Here is how the purchased field looked in the same area, in 2011.



Here is the same place at the beginning of 2013.



Here is the current snapshot.



But the fact that inside the data center.



This is not a photoshop, the real herd of deer, which decided to walk around the data center.



Backups are stored here, in case something goes wrong.

According to representatives of the corporation, 130 jobs have been created for IT specialists in this region, as well as hundreds of jobs (temporary) for various builders.



In 2010, the company signed a long-term contract for the purchase of “wind” energy from NextEra Energy Resources. In addition, the corporation has invested in the development of wind power plants in the region.

And here are some more photos of what is inside the data center of the company and next to it:









Via google