Show Me The (Data Center) Money

Recent headlines in the data center industry have featured some large dollar signs, as noted by Eric Norlin over at the NGDC blog. "How do I know that the data center will be a huge topic over the next 3-5 years?," Eric writes. "It's where the money is." His post was prompted by the $600 million (or perhaps $1.8 billion) pricetag for Google's data center in North Carolina.

When it comes to data center investment, Google's high-profile projects are just the tip of a much larger iceberg. How big is that spending? Here's a quick summary of some of our headlines from June:

That works out to $1.57 billion in announced spending for data center construction or expansion projects, and another $350 million in financing to fund data center expansions. And that's just one month, and only what's being announced publicly. Keeping in mind the Fight Club Rule of Data Center Secrecy, it's likely that there are many other projects that aren't being publicized. How big is data center spending? Suffice to say that it's one big honking iceberg.