Quincy is Microsoft's first modular data center

QUINCY - When completed, Microsoft's Quincy location is the company's first modular data center.

Its expanded version next to the original 500,000 square-foot facility was expected to be online in three months, according to a Microsoft spokesman in January.

Microsoft's work began in May to add between 40,000 and 60,000 additional square feet at the site, according to a May Columbia Basin Herald article.

In a January blog by Kevin Timmons, Microsoft Datacenter Services general manager, the company also opens other modular data centers later this year in Virginia and Iowa.

"Our modular approach to design and construction with these facilities will allow us to substantially lower cost per megawatt to build and run our data centers while significantly reducing time to market," Timmons wrote.

"This is the holy grail for most data center professionals ... fast, cheap and reliable - what more could you ask for?" he stated.

He described the modulars as "next-generation" and explained how the Quincy expansion uses modular "building blocks"  for electrical, mechanical, server and security subsystems.

The modular design helps the company build a facility faster and decrease capital costs by 50 and 60 percent, he wrote.

The Quincy expansion is "radically different" and equipment is protected by a building that looks like a tractor shed, he stated.

"The building will actually resemble slightly more modern versions of the tractor sheds I spent so much time around during my childhood in rural Illinois," Timmons wrote.

He described the building as having a "utilitarian appearance" and the ability to protect servers and storage outside with protection from the elements.

"The interior layout is specifically designed to allow us to further innovate in the ways that we deploy equipment in future phases of the project," Timmons stated."

A Microsoft spokesman said Timmons' blog shows where the company is headed in terms of data center strategy.

Data centers are no longer "brick and mortar buildings," the spokesman said. "These phases are really scalable, scalable to meet a demand."

The company worked with vendors to custom order equipment.

"Now it's been shared with IT vendors," he said. "Instead of Microsoft buying pieces already made, we went back and innovated there and changed those pieces ... so those efficiencies are being shared across the industry."