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Apple Starts Small with Prineville Data Center by Mike Rogoway The Oregonian, March 25, 2012

Amazon doubles up in Morrow County

Apple is starting small with its new data center in Prineville.

Amazon, meanwhile, is going big. It just started work on a second large data center in Morrow County.

And officials at the Port of Morrow are optimistic that data hosting specialist Rackspace will exercise an option to buy 99 acres for a new facility near Boardman by its March 31 deadline.

Oregon's data center industry is flourishing this spring, with government assistance. The Bonneville Power Administration has accelerated plans to upgrade Central Oregon's power supply, while the state Legislature voted last month to guarantee the industry's lucrative tax breaks.

Data centers arrived in Oregon in 2006, when Google built its first major data facility in The Dalles. Activity took off last year, when Facebook opened its first company-owned server farm in Prineville and Amazon opened a long-awaited data center near Boardman.

Data centers, tightly packed with hundreds or thousands of high-octane computers, cost a fortune to equip. Google has spent more than $1 billion outfitting its facility in The Dalles.

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