Data Center in Springfield? Doh!

Sorry, couldn't resist the Simpsons reference in the headline, but there may be a data center coming to Springfield - Massachusetts, that is. Massachusetts state officials are evaluating two locations in Springfield, Mass. to build a 70,000-square-foot data center with a price tag of $70 million to $80 million. The new facility will allow the state to expand beyond its existing data center in Chelsea, which has run out of space. The state will choose between two sites on government-owned property: Springfield Technical Community College or an Eliot Street site home to the former Springfield Technical High School.

But first there's the issue of the funding. The data center project has been slated for funding through a bond, according to Mass High Tech, but lawmakers have yet to pass a $250 million bond to fund the state's IT budget that state technology officials requested in 2006. In the meantime, the state government is storing its data at a Sungard data-recovery facility in New Jersey.