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Google splashes $US300m on HK data centre

Oompa-Loompas for Honkers by 2013

Google’s first Asia Pacific data centre is currently under construction in Hong Kong and looking for staff.

In September 2011, Google announced that it had acquired 2.7 hectares of land in the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate in Kowloon, for the anticipated construction of data centre facilities.

On December 8, Google revealed that construction had started. It plans to bring the facility to life by early 2013, and revealed that the Hong Kong house of big data would cost a cool $US300 million and would be as eco-friendly as possible.

“Building this data center in Hong Kong is an exciting step for us. More new Internet users are coming online every day here in Asia than anywhere else in the world. We’re building this data center to make sure that our users in Hong Kong and across Asia have the fastest and most reliable access possible to all of Google’s services, so they can do just that,” the blog post said.

Hong Kong was chosen as the Asia Pacific data centre site because of reliable energy infrastructure, a skilled workforce and a location right in the center of Asia. “We chose Hong Kong following a thorough and rigorous site selection process, taking many technical and other considerations into account, including location, infrastructure, workforce, reasonable business regulations and cost,” Google said.

The data centre will also be home to 25 new full time staff in addition to a number of part and full time contractors, in a variety of roles including computer technicians, electrical and mechanical engineers and catering and security staff.

Recruitment for the leadership team is currently underway. Current roles up for grabs include: Data Center Facilities Manager, Data Center Facilities Technicians, Linux System Administrator, Data Center Technician and Manager/Director Server Operations.

Google had previously also announced its intent to open data centres in Singapore and Taiwan but has fallen silent on these plans. ®

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