On most days it takes the right access badge and a biometric scan to make it inside the doors of Microsoft's massive datacentre. But on Wednesday, the company allowed a group of reporters, customers and partners to tour the 700,000 square foot facility.
The datacentre, along with another just-opened facility in Dublin, Ireland and existing centres in San Antonio and Quincy, Washington, serve as the guts behind Microsoft's online ambitions, from Bing to Hotmail to Windows Azure.
For all its strategic import, the ground floor of the Chicago plant looks more like a lorry park than a traditional datacentre. In each parking spot, though, Microsoft can drop off a container packed with up to 2,000 servers.
Right now, only about a dozen of the 56 container spots are filled, but Microsoft executives said they expect that to change quickly. The software maker expects eventually to spend up to $500m filling the Chicago site with gear.
The site was originally slated to open months earlier, but Microsoft delayed things due to the economy. Eventually, though, it decided to move forward.
"Investing in these uncertain economic times is always a tough choice," said Arne Josefsberg, general manager of infrastructure services Microsoft's datacentre operations. But, he added, "We take a very long-term approach to the business.
The datacentre itself is housed in an unmarked warehouse in one of the Chicago area's many industrial districts. (The software maker did not want the exact location disclosed.)
Microsoft picked the spot because of its convenient location close to cheap and abundant power, as well as the fact it sits atop a major internet connection point that houses major east-west and north-south fibre routes.
"It's a lot about location, location, location," Josefsberg said.
