Microsoft's supersize data center plans | Outside the Lines - CNET News.com

Yeah, playing for keeps

Nick Carr has received hints that Microsoft intends to build out two dozen data centers of about 500,000 square feet or more in size. He said that it was unclear as to when the data centers would be built.

Rich Miller at Data Center Knowledge gives the rumored 12 million square feet of data center space some context:

That's equivalent to filling 65 Wal-Mart Supercenters with servers. It would be a computing footprint more than twice the size of the Vatican; an expansion more than half-again as large as IBM's entire 8 million square feet of data center space. And Nick uses the term "first phase."

Microsoft's supersize data center plans | Outside the Lines - CNET News.com