That’s the funny thing. It’s not a secret. John Rath put together a great piece on why the Midwest could become a data center magnet. It’s a good read. Especially for economic development organizations struggling to differentiate their areas.
How many of these factors do you have? How well do you stack up against the Midwest?
- Reliable and inexpensive power
- Renewable energy sources
- Supportive social and business environments
- Natural disaster avoidance
- Network connectivity options
Don’t forget about our four point action plan for Regional Economic Development Agencies:
- Package Your Infrastructure – Power, Fiber, and Transportation needs to be readily available to the advance teams for evaluation.
- Assess Your Available Inventory for Data Center Readiness – Your region can be quickly eliminated because you can’t provide an inventory of available properties that answer fundamental data center questions. Items such as existing data center raised floor height, generators, proximity to fiber paths, are but a few of the items a relocation team wants to know. Most commercial listing agents have no idea what type of data center space exists in their inventories.
- Pre-form a Welcome Team – Advance evaluation teams get on airplanes to have a look. You can increase your odds with a multi-disciplinary Welcome Team to guide their evaluators and answer their questions. If you stuff this team with local politicos and Realtors, you’re missing an opportunity to put technical experts in front of the advance relocation evaluation teams.
- Don’t Just Sit There – You can build all the FAQ pages, marketing collateral, and databases you want, but assuming a corporate relocation team is going to find you is a bad bet. Seek creative ways to let others know about your area including us. Send your information to dcmove@e-oasis.com. Also consider industry-specific conferences and trade shows to highlight your area.
I’ve often wondered why the midwest wouldn’t be the most obvious choice for data center location. I’ve had this in the back of my mind for several years and thought of it again this past weekend. There are several large universities in the mid-west, so you ought to be able to find people to hire pretty easily. However, I don’t think the mid-west can beat the Colorado front range for disaster avoidance from a weather perspective. Ice storms and tornadoes could become a big issue in parts of the midwest. Maybe Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico?
Vince – Good point. I think many locations miss out because it’s not obvious what they offer. Contrast that to areas that are actively promoting their suitability for data center site locations. Monsanto built a data center in St. Louis to withstand an F5 tornado, so we know that can be done.