Microsoft Data Centers Contemplated

Microsoft is thought to be building out two-dozen data centers, each spanning approximately 500,000 square feet, in an attempt to hasten its cloud computing program.

According to business and IT blog RoughType, Microsoft is looking to forcefully speed up its investment in its data center network and the initial stage of the build out will comprise the construction of 24 data centers, totaling approximately 12 million square feet of data center space. To provide some perception, Data Center Knowledge says that’s comparable to filling 65 Wal-Mart Supercenters with servers and mirrors a computing footprint more than twice the size of the Vatican.

In spite of Microsoft’s urgency with what it considers to be a foundation of its cloud computing strategy, the timing of the construction has been left ambiguous.

If these speculations are true, it fits in line with an interview Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently did with the Financial Times where he said that Microsoft would be one of “the new super-group of tech companies” that could control the cloud computing market, next to Amazon and Google, another company rumored to be eyeing the cloud computing space.