Dell: We're Building Data Centers in 10 Countries

Dell CEO Michael Dell says his company is undertaking a global data center buildout to prepare for growing demands for secure cloud computing services. In an interview with The Australian, Dell says the initiative will include a new data center in Australia.

"We're building data centers in about 10 countries around the world," Dell said. "What we're finding is customers want to take advantage of the economics of the public cloud, but they really don't want a public cloud ... what they want is a private, secure cloud that has a level of assurance and security with it."

Dell recently purchased 80 acres of land in Quincy, Washington in connection with a secretive data center project known as “Project Roosevelt.” County records indicate that Dell Marketing LP paid $3.6 million to purchase a property in the Port of Quincy. In documents filed with local officials in December, Dell said it planned to build a 350,000 square foot data center at the site.

What's driving the need for all this data center space? Is Dell planning to offer cloud computing services out of its own data centers? Speculation about this possibility was stoked by a January tweet from Logan McLeod, the director of cloud strategy for Dell. His message: "Dell as a public cloud end-to-end service provider? Yes. IaaS & PaaS. Coming soon. Dell DC near you." The company says this was a reference to Dell's announced role in supporting the Windows Azure Appliance program, but questions will likely remain until we see more information about Dell's data center construction plans and details about what's going into those facilities.