4 ms·

From the linked MPR article (https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/02/25/wind-energy-tax-breaks-sought-to-bring-google-to-becker-minnesota https://www.mprnews.org/

From the linked MPR article (https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/02/25/wind-energy-tax-breaks-sought-to-bring-google-to-becker-minnesota https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/02/25/wind-energy-tax-bre...) > A Google data center often attracts other major technology-based companies to invest in the same area, Bertram said. I'm confused why this would be. What economic benefit would proximity to a Google data center bring, besides lower latency to some of Google's services? I can't imagine 15ms lower latency to a Google service being the deciding factor for where to locate your company.

i_am_nomad 8y ago
Maybe providing auxiliary technical services that are best done locally... though at the moment I can't think of anything that is high-margin and scales well.
reaperducer 8y ago
I can't imagine 15ms lower latency to a Google service being the deciding factor for where to locate your company. It can be, depending on your industry. Financial firms are like this. I don't know if Minneapolis still has a commodities exchange, but if it does it would be attractive to those kinds of people. Probably others I've never thought about. But overall, I think $15M for a data center is too much. Data centers don't make a dent on employment or property tax in most places they're located. It may also be worth noting that Cray supercomputers has a big presence in the area.
- mruts 8y ago
  Why would a financial firm care about 15ms latency to a google service? It's not like they would be using the cloud in the first place.
  - kevin_thibedeau 8y ago
    The government has a lot of people to keep track of in Minneapolis just in case they may want to "collect" data in the future.
  - maxxxxx 8y ago
    True. They go straight to the exchange.
    - mruts 8y ago
      Colocation costs have gone down in recent years and any firm who cares about latency (which, honestly, is only a small minority), already has it. No one, and I mean no one, gives a shit about Google’s latency in Minnesota.
- onion2k 8y ago
  Financial firms do locate to optimize for latency, but not to Google.
duxup 8y ago
Yeah I don't see any reason a data center would attract a great deal. It's not like folks working in a data center generally are the foundation of startups or starting new businesses or anything like that.
- ams6110 8y ago
  It actually sounds like just the sort of bullshit line that local city councils eat like candy. These people just have blinders when it comes to anything that they think will sound good in a tweet to their constituents.
mruts 8y ago
I guess they might have to construct the building? I dunno, doesn't seem exactly compelling. Also energy usage, but that probably doesn't create any jobs. I'm also skeptical that the other tech companies would invest just because there's a google data center there. I'm not against tax breaks (in fact, I think there should be lower taxes for just about everything), but google's argument doesn't seem particularly compelling.
justinmchase 8y ago
Its probably more about the money coming into the community and the types of people that would work there generally adding to the labor pool of the area. As jobs appear and wages go up those people spend a great deal of their money in the area and more jobs show up and as those employees look for a new job other businesses can compete for those higher skilled employees.
- wyldfire 8y ago
  > As jobs appear and wages go up those people spend a great deal of their money in the area fifty datacenter jobs? These are probably not the folks raking in the big comp and RSUs. ...it's a race to the bottom, legislators see a simple equation that converts public money into tallies in their win column, to be used while jockeying for more power or re-election.
  - justinmchase 8y ago
    Well I agree with that, subsidising industry with public money is not fair to everyone else and doesn't necessarily pay off at all. But having, even those relatively small number of jobs in a community could really help depending on the city size, it seems find to court business but using tax money or offering big tax cuts is kind of BS.
keko039ndnfm 8y ago
A cottage service industry springs up which provides something of a foundation for other big corp players to work with? The area can attract people capable of working at a Google DC, and a local community to support those folks. I expect Google is taking a broader look than the few data points this forum is considering. Google and the like do not just hire tech PhDs
halbritt 8y ago
We can take a look at The Dalles or Boardman, OR to see what effect data centers have had on the local economy. There are a few very large data centers there built by GCP and AWS respectively. My guess on the economic effects? Not much.
grimjack00 8y ago
It could be something like impressions of the overall quality of infrastructure. Is Google going to put a data center where Internet speeds look like 90's dialup?
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
zeckalpha 8y ago
Peering agreements are a thing

i_am_nomad 8y ago

Maybe providing auxiliary technical services that are best done locally... though at the moment I can't think of anything that is high-margin and scales well.

reaperducer 8y ago

I can't imagine 15ms lower latency to a Google service being the deciding factor for where to locate your company. It can be, depending on your industry. Financial firms are like this. I don't know if Minneapolis still has a commodities exchange, but if it does it would be attractive to those kinds of people. Probably others I've never thought about. But overall, I think $15M for a data center is too much. Data centers don't make a dent on employment or property tax in most places they're located. It may also be worth noting that Cray supercomputers has a big presence in the area.

mruts 8y ago
Why would a financial firm care about 15ms latency to a google service? It's not like they would be using the cloud in the first place.
- kevin_thibedeau 8y ago
  The government has a lot of people to keep track of in Minneapolis just in case they may want to "collect" data in the future.
- maxxxxx 8y ago
  True. They go straight to the exchange.
  - mruts 8y ago
    Colocation costs have gone down in recent years and any firm who cares about latency (which, honestly, is only a small minority), already has it. No one, and I mean no one, gives a shit about Google’s latency in Minnesota.
onion2k 8y ago
Financial firms do locate to optimize for latency, but not to Google.

duxup 8y ago

Yeah I don't see any reason a data center would attract a great deal. It's not like folks working in a data center generally are the foundation of startups or starting new businesses or anything like that.

ams6110 8y ago
It actually sounds like just the sort of bullshit line that local city councils eat like candy. These people just have blinders when it comes to anything that they think will sound good in a tweet to their constituents.

mruts 8y ago

I guess they might have to construct the building? I dunno, doesn't seem exactly compelling. Also energy usage, but that probably doesn't create any jobs. I'm also skeptical that the other tech companies would invest just because there's a google data center there. I'm not against tax breaks (in fact, I think there should be lower taxes for just about everything), but google's argument doesn't seem particularly compelling.

justinmchase 8y ago

Its probably more about the money coming into the community and the types of people that would work there generally adding to the labor pool of the area. As jobs appear and wages go up those people spend a great deal of their money in the area and more jobs show up and as those employees look for a new job other businesses can compete for those higher skilled employees.

wyldfire 8y ago
> As jobs appear and wages go up those people spend a great deal of their money in the area fifty datacenter jobs? These are probably not the folks raking in the big comp and RSUs. ...it's a race to the bottom, legislators see a simple equation that converts public money into tallies in their win column, to be used while jockeying for more power or re-election.
- justinmchase 8y ago
  Well I agree with that, subsidising industry with public money is not fair to everyone else and doesn't necessarily pay off at all. But having, even those relatively small number of jobs in a community could really help depending on the city size, it seems find to court business but using tax money or offering big tax cuts is kind of BS.

keko039ndnfm 8y ago

A cottage service industry springs up which provides something of a foundation for other big corp players to work with? The area can attract people capable of working at a Google DC, and a local community to support those folks. I expect Google is taking a broader look than the few data points this forum is considering. Google and the like do not just hire tech PhDs

halbritt 8y ago

We can take a look at The Dalles or Boardman, OR to see what effect data centers have had on the local economy. There are a few very large data centers there built by GCP and AWS respectively. My guess on the economic effects? Not much.

grimjack00 8y ago

It could be something like impressions of the overall quality of infrastructure. Is Google going to put a data center where Internet speeds look like 90's dialup?

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

zeckalpha 8y ago

Peering agreements are a thing