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>> "Virginia successfully competed against North Carolina for the project, which will create 54 new jobs" How many people typically work at a data center for o

>> "Virginia successfully competed against North Carolina for the project, which will create 54 new jobs" How many people typically work at a data center for one of the largest hosting companies in the world? Because 54 jobs seems kind of low, no?

honkhonkpants 10y ago
That's pretty typical. You need maybe a couple of technicians to run the water and air handling systems, a handful of people on skateboards swapping out dead machines, and some security guards. Here's a recent article that says Google employees 400 people in their Oklahoma facility, which is enormous. http://www.tulsaworld.com/businesshomepage1/new-google-facility-opening-in-pryor-brings-its-oklahoma-investment/article_13726985-22ca-56b6-8f29-dae948baf0e5.html http://www.tulsaworld.com/businesshomepage1/new-google-facil...
SwellJoe 10y ago
The place where I colocate our servers (the company is probably in the top five in the industry in terms of size, with data centers in about a dozen cities) runs with a tech staff of ~six during the day and two overnight. They've obviously got other staff for all of the other business-related roles, but data centers just don't require a lot of staff in the general case.
derefr 10y ago
In the same way that some companies have negative externalities like pollution, you could think of a data-centre more as having a positive externality of job creation. Data-centers don't do many things themselves, using manual labor; instead, they're just large machines that consume purified resources (power, live fiber, provisioned equipment) and turn it into APIs. But purifying those resources for the DC's consumption does require people—and DCs need a lot of each of the resources they consume. For every N data-centres that get built in a state, that state probably employs a good few more power-plant workers and linemen, for just one effect.
- Spooky23 10y ago
  Not really. That infrastructure scales up. You pick up a few construction jobs and maybe get some reusable utility infrastructure. That's it. A lot of the other roles are field service type things that don't use local workers. That's not a bad thing, just not the end-all, be-all. if the building of data centers or similar facilities are a trend, you will build up good local capability to build these facilities and may start winning other business.
saulrh 10y ago
I'm just surprised as the absolute magnitude of the number. Virginia has hundreds of thousands of unemployed right now; 54 is probably within measurement error. Even if they're off by orders of magnitude, 500 is a drop in the bucket, and 5000 is barely noticeable. It just seems weird to me that that number is big enough to be worth trumpeting from the hills.
- NetStrikeForce 10y ago
  It's good PR to bring more tech companies; it signals there's a talent pool in the area, because high tech companies are established there.
- dorfsmay 10y ago
  On top of 54 jobs there are additional tax on profit + all indirect benefits, more computer hardware maintenance, HVAC install and maintenance, etc...
  - tssva 10y ago
    Usually the big tax gain for the locality is property tax on the equipment located within the data center.
    - patrickg_zill 10y ago
      Not sure that all municipalities charge a tax on the servers. However they get taxes on power and utilities like water. Also a larger base of utilities means the capital costs are spread across more billing.
      - tssva 10y ago
        They may not all do so, but the largest data center concentrations in the US are in Loudoun County, VA and in the Dallas/Fort Worth areas. You will pay local tax on your equipment in both locations.
- niftich 10y ago
bane 10y ago
Data Centers are great for the tax base, multi-million dollar businesses that bring in loads of tax revenue, but not lots of people, which reduces infrastructure costs. The additional tax dollars thus goes out to hire people, etc. etc. Virginia is on a huge high-tech growth track due to the increased tech thrust in the Fed Gov space. The state is even reviving towns with tax benefits for computing centers in remote parts. While this isn't along the famed "Tech Corridor" in Virginia, it could be the beginning of a "Tech Triangle" that could quickly grow to a second place tech hub to SV.
- niftich 10y ago
  While this isn't in Ashburn, it's between Gainesville and Warrenton at a site that was formerly an NSA signals intelligence facility [1] and is now a fledgling industrial park that this just-outside-of-exurban-DC county is trying to push. It's adjacent to major FAA air traffic control facility. That being said, I wouldn't count this as "new node" in the Tech Corridor, it's simply a good site in a lower-tax neighboring county, but still in DC's exurban western periphery. When other parts of Virginia away from a 20-mile radius of Dulles are seeing this kind of investment, then we can talk about a Virginia Tech Triangle. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vint_Hill_Farms_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vint_Hill_Farms_Station
  - wyldfire 10y ago
    > formerly an NSA signals intelligence facility Hey, EU customers who want a POP in the US -- come use our new servers! We checked, definitely no SIGINT bugs left behind. :)
    - jschwartzi 10y ago
      That you're aware of. :)
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - Animats 10y ago
beachstartup 10y ago
i'll speak to what i know -- an equinix datacenter probably employs about 20 people, most of them security staff. most of the people who work on the actual facility are vendor staff, i.e. hvac specialists, power system specialists, the people from caterpillar that maintain the diesel gens, etc. for that matter, even security is outsourced (but they are still full time @ the facility). everyone else is a customer, coming in and out to do internet-y things in the cloud aka working on computers in datacenters, same as it ever was.
- acveilleux 10y ago
  OVH does mostly dedicated server so they may find it economical to have slightly more operations staff. The job count also includes the US HQ so sales/management type positions.
kawsper 10y ago
Apple and Facebook are both establishing datacenters in Denmark. For the Facebook one they estimate 1.200 jobs building it, and 1.000 new jobs both working there and around the datacenter. I think they are going to be very disappointed if that is the amount of jobs they expect. There is some interesting information from Facebooks datacenter in Oregon from 2011 here: https://www.facebook.com/notes/prineville-data-center/press-release-facebook-opens-first-data-center-in-prineville-oregon/10150150581753133/ https://www.facebook.com/notes/prineville-data-center/press-... > Over the course of the project, more than 1,300 people have worked on the site – an average of 250 workers a day. When completed, Facebook has committed to hire 35 full-time employees to run and maintain the data center.
- NetStrikeForce 10y ago
  As per the 1k jobs, sometimes those numbers are calculated based on how many new jobs can the local government (directly or not) create with the tax surplus they'll be getting from the new business coming into town.
aidenn0 10y ago
You see similar things with manufacturing coming back to the US. Plenty of SKUs, not many jobs. This is because it's the most easily automated SKUs that get brought back to the US.
walrus01 10y ago
not really, no, a large scale datacenter operator does as much as possible to reduce the number of people involved. Ideally the only staff you need on site are relatively low wage, low skilled persons who know how to rack a server, connect a power cable, connect some network cables according to a master plan. Everything else happens through automated provisioning software and neteng/sysadmin staff who work off site, could be anywhere in the world. I am actually surprised it is as high as 54, if you visit some of the really huge datacenters in Quincy, WA or The Dalles, OR you might walk through the entire facility and see 3 people working on a "busy" day.
- astrodust 10y ago
  They are staffed 24x7 and have numerous shifts, so keeping three people in a building on that schedule means a staff of at least 12-18.
- dx034 10y ago
  Plus security guards, probably another 3-4. With 24/7 shifts, you quickly get to 60 people.
- acveilleux 10y ago
  Two people around the clock with no provision for vacation or absence is a minimum of 10 people (if you keep all shifts 40h and below.) Add a couple for redundancy, some sort of manager, cleaning staff and a surge of day time staff and you're at 20. You can probably use a few more people, some tradespersons, and security (this is near DC, they have to be thinking about Gov work) and pretty soon 54 is not too crazy. OVH provides lots of leased servers so you need larger staff than a pure colo. They're also calling this US HQ so add some sales, support and operations staff that would/will be remote at the second US datacenter.

honkhonkpants 10y ago

That's pretty typical. You need maybe a couple of technicians to run the water and air handling systems, a handful of people on skateboards swapping out dead machines, and some security guards. Here's a recent article that says Google employees 400 people in their Oklahoma facility, which is enormous. http://www.tulsaworld.com/businesshomepage1/new-google-facility-opening-in-pryor-brings-its-oklahoma-investment/article_13726985-22ca-56b6-8f29-dae948baf0e5.html http://www.tulsaworld.com/businesshomepage1/new-google-facil...

SwellJoe 10y ago

The place where I colocate our servers (the company is probably in the top five in the industry in terms of size, with data centers in about a dozen cities) runs with a tech staff of ~six during the day and two overnight. They've obviously got other staff for all of the other business-related roles, but data centers just don't require a lot of staff in the general case.

derefr 10y ago

In the same way that some companies have negative externalities like pollution, you could think of a data-centre more as having a positive externality of job creation. Data-centers don't do many things themselves, using manual labor; instead, they're just large machines that consume purified resources (power, live fiber, provisioned equipment) and turn it into APIs. But purifying those resources for the DC's consumption does require people—and DCs need a lot of each of the resources they consume. For every N data-centres that get built in a state, that state probably employs a good few more power-plant workers and linemen, for just one effect.

Spooky23 10y ago
Not really. That infrastructure scales up. You pick up a few construction jobs and maybe get some reusable utility infrastructure. That's it. A lot of the other roles are field service type things that don't use local workers. That's not a bad thing, just not the end-all, be-all. if the building of data centers or similar facilities are a trend, you will build up good local capability to build these facilities and may start winning other business.

saulrh 10y ago

I'm just surprised as the absolute magnitude of the number. Virginia has hundreds of thousands of unemployed right now; 54 is probably within measurement error. Even if they're off by orders of magnitude, 500 is a drop in the bucket, and 5000 is barely noticeable. It just seems weird to me that that number is big enough to be worth trumpeting from the hills.

NetStrikeForce 10y ago
It's good PR to bring more tech companies; it signals there's a talent pool in the area, because high tech companies are established there.
dorfsmay 10y ago
On top of 54 jobs there are additional tax on profit + all indirect benefits, more computer hardware maintenance, HVAC install and maintenance, etc...
- tssva 10y ago
  Usually the big tax gain for the locality is property tax on the equipment located within the data center.
  - patrickg_zill 10y ago
    Not sure that all municipalities charge a tax on the servers. However they get taxes on power and utilities like water. Also a larger base of utilities means the capital costs are spread across more billing.
    - tssva 10y ago
      They may not all do so, but the largest data center concentrations in the US are in Loudoun County, VA and in the Dallas/Fort Worth areas. You will pay local tax on your equipment in both locations.
niftich 10y ago

bane 10y ago

Data Centers are great for the tax base, multi-million dollar businesses that bring in loads of tax revenue, but not lots of people, which reduces infrastructure costs. The additional tax dollars thus goes out to hire people, etc. etc. Virginia is on a huge high-tech growth track due to the increased tech thrust in the Fed Gov space. The state is even reviving towns with tax benefits for computing centers in remote parts. While this isn't along the famed "Tech Corridor" in Virginia, it could be the beginning of a "Tech Triangle" that could quickly grow to a second place tech hub to SV.

niftich 10y ago
While this isn't in Ashburn, it's between Gainesville and Warrenton at a site that was formerly an NSA signals intelligence facility [1] and is now a fledgling industrial park that this just-outside-of-exurban-DC county is trying to push. It's adjacent to major FAA air traffic control facility. That being said, I wouldn't count this as "new node" in the Tech Corridor, it's simply a good site in a lower-tax neighboring county, but still in DC's exurban western periphery. When other parts of Virginia away from a 20-mile radius of Dulles are seeing this kind of investment, then we can talk about a Virginia Tech Triangle. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vint_Hill_Farms_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vint_Hill_Farms_Station
- wyldfire 10y ago
  > formerly an NSA signals intelligence facility Hey, EU customers who want a POP in the US -- come use our new servers! We checked, definitely no SIGINT bugs left behind. :)
  - jschwartzi 10y ago
    That you're aware of. :)
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- Animats 10y ago

beachstartup 10y ago

i'll speak to what i know -- an equinix datacenter probably employs about 20 people, most of them security staff. most of the people who work on the actual facility are vendor staff, i.e. hvac specialists, power system specialists, the people from caterpillar that maintain the diesel gens, etc. for that matter, even security is outsourced (but they are still full time @ the facility). everyone else is a customer, coming in and out to do internet-y things in the cloud aka working on computers in datacenters, same as it ever was.

acveilleux 10y ago
OVH does mostly dedicated server so they may find it economical to have slightly more operations staff. The job count also includes the US HQ so sales/management type positions.

kawsper 10y ago

Apple and Facebook are both establishing datacenters in Denmark. For the Facebook one they estimate 1.200 jobs building it, and 1.000 new jobs both working there and around the datacenter. I think they are going to be very disappointed if that is the amount of jobs they expect. There is some interesting information from Facebooks datacenter in Oregon from 2011 here: https://www.facebook.com/notes/prineville-data-center/press-release-facebook-opens-first-data-center-in-prineville-oregon/10150150581753133/ https://www.facebook.com/notes/prineville-data-center/press-... > Over the course of the project, more than 1,300 people have worked on the site – an average of 250 workers a day. When completed, Facebook has committed to hire 35 full-time employees to run and maintain the data center.

NetStrikeForce 10y ago
As per the 1k jobs, sometimes those numbers are calculated based on how many new jobs can the local government (directly or not) create with the tax surplus they'll be getting from the new business coming into town.

aidenn0 10y ago

You see similar things with manufacturing coming back to the US. Plenty of SKUs, not many jobs. This is because it's the most easily automated SKUs that get brought back to the US.

walrus01 10y ago

not really, no, a large scale datacenter operator does as much as possible to reduce the number of people involved. Ideally the only staff you need on site are relatively low wage, low skilled persons who know how to rack a server, connect a power cable, connect some network cables according to a master plan. Everything else happens through automated provisioning software and neteng/sysadmin staff who work off site, could be anywhere in the world. I am actually surprised it is as high as 54, if you visit some of the really huge datacenters in Quincy, WA or The Dalles, OR you might walk through the entire facility and see 3 people working on a "busy" day.

astrodust 10y ago
They are staffed 24x7 and have numerous shifts, so keeping three people in a building on that schedule means a staff of at least 12-18.
dx034 10y ago
Plus security guards, probably another 3-4. With 24/7 shifts, you quickly get to 60 people.
acveilleux 10y ago
Two people around the clock with no provision for vacation or absence is a minimum of 10 people (if you keep all shifts 40h and below.) Add a couple for redundancy, some sort of manager, cleaning staff and a surge of day time staff and you're at 20. You can probably use a few more people, some tradespersons, and security (this is near DC, they have to be thinking about Gov work) and pretty soon 54 is not too crazy. OVH provides lots of leased servers so you need larger staff than a pure colo. They're also calling this US HQ so add some sales, support and operations staff that would/will be remote at the second US datacenter.