Along with the center in Texas, two new data centers will be brought online during the month of July.  It makes another two points of entry to the nebulous cloud spoken of so often.

Microsoft’s data center expansion continues as two new such facilities are scheduled to ‘open up shop’ in the near future. The Dublin data center, which is claimed to be the “first mega-data center Microsoft has built outside the United States,” with its 303,000 square feet of space, will go online tomorrow, July 1st, followed by the 700,000 square foot Chicago center which is set to kick off work on July 20th.

“It is truly exciting to bring these two data centers online,” said Arne Josefsberg, General Manager of Infrastructure Services, Global Foundation Services. “We take great pride in the innovations they deliver to move the data center industry forward and to extend Microsoft’s online services to customers globally. As the company’s Software-plus-Services strategy progresses, these data centers will play a key supporting role.”

The new centers are said to help with hosting online services like the Bing search engine, Windows Live, and Azure.

from Tech Connect

The Dublin data center for Skynet Microsoft

Seriously, with Microsoft entering into this part of the computer biz, it makes one wonder why the company never tried to challenge the telcos and cable companies as an ISP.

Cloud computing will will be with us, whether we like it or not, but only time will tell if it will succeed at bringing its stated goals. I only want to know that my midday Hotmail check doesn’t get rebuffed.

§

‘

It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English — up to fifty words used in correct context — no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese. - Carl Sagan