Central Washington, a rural area known for its agricultural prowess and power-generating dams and located 200 miles from the state’s major technology corridor, has suddenly become a backbone of the technology industry.
Popular search engine Ask.com recently became the fifth company within the past year to announce plans for a major electronic data storage center in the communities of Quincy and East Wenatchee. Ask.com, a division of IAC Search & Media, joins a lineup that already includes Microsoft, Yahoo!, Intuit and Seattle-based Sabey Corp. in building more than 1.5 million square feet of data centers on 200-plus acres.
"The combination of fiber connectivity, network availability, low-cost power and a great team of community members made central Washington the right choice for Yahoo! to build our next state-of-the-art data centers," said Kevin Timmons, vice president of operations at Yahoo!. "Grant County offers the resources needed to continue to scale our infrastructure to provide the best Internet experience for our 500 million users."
As a result, central Washington has rapidly become an example of how the world’s most innovative companies are leveraging small-town America. This wind-swept desert region is gaining relevance in high-tech circles despite its distance from the state’s more traditionally regarded and established technology groupings in Seattle, Vancouver, Spokane and the Tri-Cities area.
Data storage facilities require significant power supplies, high-speed connectivity and security from natural disasters. All are assets in central Washington.
Central Washington’s proximity to five dams on the Columbia River that supply abundant, inexpensive hydroelectric power makes it attractive, according to John Sabey, senior vice president of Seattle-based Sabey Corp., which is building a 100,000-square-foot data storage facility. Availability of redundant fiber, favorable land prices and central Washington’s location away from major fault zones and liquefaction areas have also placed it in demand among companies looking to locate data centers.
Microsoft evaluated communities around the world against 31 criteria important for locating a data center and Quincy ranked at the top, said Michael Manos, senior director of the company’s data center operations.
Abundant agriculture helped along by a sophisticated irrigation system defined central Washington’s early history. The construction of massive Grand Coulee Dam to harness the rushing waters of the Columbia River, initially viewed as a huge risk, transformed dry desert lands into rich agricultural fields and a boon for the community’s farming fortunes.
A century later, the region has once again shown its ability to innovate. Grant County Public Utility District, the major supplier of power, took an important leap of faith in extending high-speed fiber to the community, which turned out to be critical in landing the data centers. Public utility districts in Chelan and Douglas counties, which also operate Columbia River dams that supply low-cost power, made similar investments in fiber that netted data centers in return.
In addition to Ask.com, Intuit, which creates personal financial software programs such as Quicken and Turbo Tax, plans to build a large data center on 65 acres in Quincy, Wash., home to 5,044. The data center will be similar in size to facilities being built by Yahoo! and Microsoft, which are setting up on 50 and 75 acres, respectively, also in Quincy. Sabey Corporation is building a 100,000-square-foot data center in nearby East Wenatchee to house a large single tenant or multiple users.
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