The Cloud Factories: Data Centers in Rural Washington State Gobble Power

New York Times: Set in the dry hills and irrigated farmland of Central Washington, Grant County is known for its robust harvest of apples, potatoes, cherries and beans. But for Microsoft, a prime lure was the region's other valuable resource: cheap electrical power. The technology giant created a stir here in 2006 when it bought about 75 acres of bean fields to build a giant data center, a digital warehouse to support various Internet services. Its voracious appetite for electricity would be fed by hydroelectric...

URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/technology/data-centers-in-rural-washington-state-gobble-power.html
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