Microsoft has purchased another 17 acres in south Fulton, as the tech giant builds out its Atlanta data center region, according to Bizjournals.com.
Data centers are the backbone of today’s digital infrastructure. The sprawling warehouses are filled with hundreds of servers that store, process and disseminate information, both for consumers and for companies’ information technology functions. Building data centers near company operations increases software speeds. Microsoft has 60 data center regions worldwide.
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) bought about 7 acres from Lit/Hodges Industrial Trust for $1.1 million and another 10 acres from Macq LLC for $1 million, according to Fulton County property deeds.
The sites may offer additional infrastructure to support Microsoft’s two incoming Fulton County data centers, which will be in East Point and Palmetto. The company announced metro Atlanta as its “East US 3” data center region last February to support faster access and Microsoft Azure cloud services.
Metro Atlanta is one of the top markets for data centers in the country because of its fiber infrastructure as a former railroad town, connectivity to the Southeast and low costs of land and electricity.
Microsoft plans to invest $420 million into each of the first phases of the East Point and Palmetto data centers, which will start at 250,000 square feet and 20 jobs. Those centers could have four additional phases of similar value, according to the Development Authority of Fulton County. Microsoft has another data center planned in Douglas County west of Atlanta. The Douglasville center is a $400 million investment, with a first phase of 245,000 square feet and potential for three more phases.
The newest land acquisitions in Fulton County are much smaller than the sites Microsoft bought for its upcoming data centers. For example, Microsoft needed 125 acres for the East Point center and at least 90 acres for its Douglasville center.
