According to press reports in Texas, international financial conglomerate, Citigroup is considering building a massive data centre in central Texas.
Citigroup told local TV station, KXAN NBC Austin, they plan to build a $475 million data processing center with about 50 new jobs, and has already looked at several sites nationwide, including Round Rock and Georgetown in the Austin region. No decision has yet been made.
Austin has sufficiently recovered from the dot-com bust to become a rapidly attractive area for new enterprise data centres. The Austin market benefits from a steady source of young, talented graduates from the University of Texas in Austin, affordable housing and a proliferation of well-established technology companies including Intel, Dell and Sun Microsystems.
Hewlett-Packard has committed to build two major facilities in Austin, which is also on the short list for a huge Microsoft data center project. This is in addition to Zydeco Development's proposed data center park and plans by Digital Realty Trust to expand its Austin facility.