
Ask HN: Why are Google data centers so far away form the company's customers? - boshomi
Most of google&#x27;s data center are located in SE of USA. The customers are distributed worldwide[1].<p>[1] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;about&#x2F;datacenters&#x2F;inside&#x2F;locations&#x2F;index.html
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bigboomer
It all comes down to cost of power/water/labor and favorable tax incentives.

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davismwfl
I do not know for fact, but a couple of key things I can think of that make
sense to me.

1\. The vast majority of the United States population (density wise) is on the
East side of the Country, not the west. If you pull up any population density
map you can see it, yes California is a big state but the density of the
population overwhelmingly is on the East side of the Country.

2\. The cost of land and overall infrastructure as well as employment costs
are far less in the South East than in the West or North East. Not to mention
there are more favorable terms and less bureaucracy to build generally than
say in California or New York.

Even if you look at the centers outside the South East you'll see they picked
lower cost states, and what are likely states which will give better terms on
taxes and land but still have the overall infrastructure to support them.

Just my 2 cents, but to me it seems like they are close to their customers
based on population density.

*edit, added a sentence.

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sarcasmatwork
I dont know about the other locations, but the one in Oregon is in the Dallas
and no one wants to live there. Low cost of living, low power costs, good tax
structure to name a few reasons Google is there...

[https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-
forest/2018/04/google_tou...](https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-
forest/2018/04/google_touts_18_billion_invest.html)

