Telecom provider Verizon announced that it will construct a massive data center campus in Somerset, New York on the shores of Lake Ontario. The $500 million, 900,000 square foot facility will house $3.4 billion in equipment over its 20-year lifespan. Verizon said that after investments in land, utilities and other costs, the data center campus will cost a total of $4.5 billion.
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Meanwhile, Data Center Knowledge reports that Google’s data center spending soared in the third quarter of 2010, as the company reported capital expenditures of $757 million, the second-highest quarterly total in the company’s history. The report notes that the only precedent for these spending levels is the first quarter of 2008, when Google was building three major data center projects in the U.S.
Finally, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it plans to open a new data center near St. Louis, MO. With potential to bring about 100 full-time and 300 part-time jobs to the area, the center is expected to open in late 2011 in the Charles Prevedel Federal Building at the site of a former Army records center. The federal government says it plans to make $35 million of improvements to the building over the next five years. The data collection and processing center will aid in statistical research about trends in agriculture and the farming sector, while streamlining USDA survey operations conducted around the country.