Microsoft, Yahoo and Intuit have built a new kind of farm -- huge data centers called server farms -- stimulating development. But some think expectations are too high.
QUINCY, WASH. -- When the wind blows across the arid river basin, dust swirls and scatters over the sun-heated earth of this small farming town, sneaking into buildings on pant legs and the tops of shoes.
Once the dust settles, someone invariably walks into Dan Gates' hardware store on E Street looking for a push broom and a box of a cleaning compound called Kleen Sweep. Gates used to sell about a box a week. Lately he has been selling boxes by the pallet.
"My customer count is higher, transactions are up, my inventory is up," said Gates, owner of the local True Value franchise.
It's a good customer who buys Kleen Sweep by the ton -- which is how Gates came to appreciate the people down the road who are building a data center, the town's third.
Rural America -- particularly the inland Northwest, where wind- and water-generated electricity is some of the cheapest in the nation -- is suddenly coveted by technology companies. They construct sprawling buildings with massive computer servers, the hidden muscle and bone that process the seemingly weightless, rapidly growing data of people's everyday lives. The technology that supports technology is strikingly old-fashioned: cast-iron pipes, reinforced concrete, sheet-metal ductwork.
Once the dust settles, someone invariably walks into Dan Gates' hardware store on E Street looking for a push broom and a box of a cleaning compound called Kleen Sweep. Gates used to sell about a box a week. Lately he has been selling boxes by the pallet.
It's a good customer who buys Kleen Sweep by the ton -- which is how Gates came to appreciate the people down the road who are building a data center, the town's third.
Rural America -- particularly the inland Northwest, where wind- and water-generated electricity is some of the cheapest in the nation -- is suddenly coveted by technology companies. They construct sprawling buildings with massive computer servers, the hidden muscle and bone that process the seemingly weightless, rapidly growing data of people's everyday lives. The technology that supports technology is strikingly old-fashioned: cast-iron pipes, reinforced concrete, sheet-metal ductwork.
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