Google Building Two More Data Centers

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A photo of the Google data center in Goose Creek South Carolina.

Google is expanding its data center capacity with new construction in the Carolinas, the company said this week. Citing the need for additional server capacity, Google is completing work on a second data center at its campus in Goose Creek, South Carolina, while a similar project is underway at the company's project in Lenoir, North Carolina.

Google's initial plans for both the Goose Creek and Lenoir projects called for two data centers in each site. In 2008 the company built two data center structures in each location, installing servers and networking equipment in one data center while leaving the second structure as an empty "shell" for future occupancy.

Both Sites to Go Live in 2011
In both Lenoir and Goose Creek, Google will begin installing IT equipment in the second data centers early in 2011, with plans to have both sites operational by the end of 2011.

Google is now actively expanding three of its major data center facilities in the U.S.  Last month the search provider said it was resuming work on a major data center project in Pryor, Oklahoma. The initial phase of the Oklahoma project was originally scheduled for completion in 2009, but was delayed due to the slowing economy.

When the economic crisis hit in late 2008. Google throttled back on its infrastructure investments. This pause was enabled by the company’s building boom in 2007-08, during which it announced major data center construction projects in Lenoir, Goose Creek, Oklahoma and Council Bluffs, Iowa

That has clearly changed as its business has continued to grow, and Google is back in building mode.  Google’s need for additional capacity is reflected in the dramatic ramp-up in data center spending in recent months. The company spent more than $750 million on data center-related capital expenditures in the quarter that ended Sept. 30, nearly as much as it spent in all of 2009.

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The company said it made some investments in infrastructure in the third quarter to prepare for the launch of Google Instant, the company’s new search mode that generates 5 to 7 times more results pages for most searches.
For more photos from the Goose Creek data center, you can check out The Digitel’s  Flickr set.