Google is opening a $600 million data center in Lenoir, N.C., matching the size of the similar facility Google is building in The Dalles, Ore. During the second and third quarters last year, Google's capital expenditures were more than $1.2 billion. Some experts believe dominance on the Internet could eventually be determined by the size and efficiency of huge data centers. Microsoft and Yahoo are both building facilities in Washington state, up the Columbia River from Google's. Microsoft also will build a $550 million data center in Austin, Tex.
Google also has leased enough wide area network dark fiber to rival that of many carriers. All of which will stand Google in good stead as video drives Internet traffic way beyond anything engineers have designed for, or that ISPs can afford to support, truth be told. Where a typical end user now generates between one and three gigabytes of traffic a month, video downloading could drive demand to one to three gigabytes a day. That 30 times increase, an order of magnitude and then some, is going to crush many ISPs, whose business models simply won't allow them to buy additional IP transit in that quantity.
So Google conceivably could emerge as quite a savior. Basically, peering with Google, on whatever terms Google might require, might be the key to survival. Interesting, indeed.
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