Google confirms $600 million investment in new data center

April 6th, 2007

Google confirmed, Wednesday 4th Apr 2007, that the machines and workers at the 520-acre Berkeley County center site, 20 miles northwest of Charleston, South Carolina will be part of $600 million investment in the company’s worldwide network to handle Internet traffic.

Google hopes to have the first servers on line by year’s end, although the initial investment includes infrastructure that would allow the company to quickly expand if needed. The entire center should be operational within 18 months, said Rhett Weiss, the company’s senior team leader for global infrastructure.

“The company chose the site because it had water to cool the banks of computers as well as fiber optic cable connections, Weiss said. “The fiber optic connection is sort of the modern version of what Charleston traditionally was as a port city, The fiber optic network is sort of the import-export aspect of the project. That’s how the information is coming in and out.”

Andrew Johnson, who handles Google’s East Coast hardware operations, said the company does not reveal the size of the buildings or number of servers for competitive reasons.

In January, Google announced a similar investment in Lenoir, North Carolina and is also is looking at investing in another server farm near Blythewood on the outskirts of Columbia.

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