It's not just Microsoft and Google building big data centers for online traffic, reports Kristine Shevory of the NY Times. "Any company that wants to do business online -- such as the tech giants Microsoft and Google, insurance companies or banks -- is racing to construct or expand server farms across the country, or use a company such as Internap to provide server space." And the reason eastern Washington is so popular? Cheap electricity. Power and cooling are the big issues for data centers. The Uptime Institute in Santa Fe caught this issues several years ago and now has some of the largest corporations in the world as its members and participating in its conferences. Katrina and 9-11 also made companies aware of how importantn it is to have multiple records in safe locations, and then there are always federal regulations to bolster the argument.Taking a tape home at night is no longer enough.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/289971_datacenters26.html