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The facility will house about 75 workers employed at an average annual salary of $70,000.
By Paul McDougall, InformationWeek, Aug. 22 2008, 1230 hrs
Iowa Governor Chet Culver said Thursday that software giant Microsoft will invest $500 million to build an Internet data center in the Hawkeye state.
Microsoft plans to build the data center, which will house Web servers and software, in West Des Moines, said Culver.
"We are very proud to welcome Microsoft to Iowa," said Culver, at a ceremony attended by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa), Iowa State Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal and local community leaders.
"In making its decision, Microsoft recognized what we in Iowa have known all along—our workforce and quality of life makes Iowa the best place for business," said Culver.
Microsoft needs to build out hosting infrastructure to meet the growing demand for Web-based services such as Windows Live and Messenger. In choosing to place a new data center in Iowa, it's taking a page from Internet rival Google. Google last year said it would spend $600 million to construct a data center in the Midwestern state.
"Microsoft selected Iowa after evaluating a number of locations across the country," said Michael Manos, Microsoft's general manager for data center services. "Iowa provided the best all-round combination of attributes that we evaluate in an important selection such as this," said Manos, who was also in attendance at the event.
Behind Iowa's growing popularity as a destination for tech investment are low costs, an educated workforce and a moderate climate. Plans call for the data center to employ about 75 workers at an average annual salary of $70,000.
Microsoft's stock closed down slightly in Thursday trading, off .40% to $27.18.
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