Gearing Up For Google

The city of Pryor could soon become the home of an internet giant. There's nothing official, but as The News On 6 reported on Thursday, there are plenty of signs the company is looking at Pryor.

Friday, April 6th 2007, 5:00 pm

By: News On 6

The city of Pryor could soon become the home of an internet giant. There's nothing official, but as The News On 6 reported on Thursday, there are plenty of signs the company is looking at Pryor. News on 6 business reporter Steve Berg went to Mayes County, he reports on why the Mid-America Industrial Park is good for Google.

Sanders Mitchell can't say if Google is coming to the Mid-America Industrial Park, but he can say the Park is prepared to handle a large customer like Google.

"We're building our roads, infrastructure there, sewer systems, collection systems, waste treatment systems. So we've put ourselves in a position to be ready," he said.

When you type a search phrase into Google's search engine it might seem like it pulls its results out of thin air. The reality is your search, along with billions of others, are routed through immense Google data centers. According to some reports, Google has around 64 data centers worldwide with maybe 400,000 computer servers. It's hard to know for sure because Google is developing a reputation for secrecy.

"I personally don't see a huge need to be totally secretive about it," said Scott Phillips with Isocentric.

Scott Phillips helps run a Tulsa-based data center called Isocentric. The business has a 3,000 square foot server room, and can serve thousands of clients. Now, he says, consider that just one of Google's data center is 10 times the size.

"I can't even imagine 100,000 servers, let alone 400,000 servers,â€ Phillips said. â€œWe have probably about 200 servers in our infrastructure."

The common thread with all these Google data centers, wherever they're built around the country, is the need for cheap electricity. Pryor's got that, 3,000 megawatts worth at about 10% cheaper than most parts of the country.

"We have various types of power which gives us much better reliability,â€ Phillips said. â€œAnd they just from a power per square foot area, we have much more power than the coasts. So if you look at the coasts, they're having rolling blackouts. If you're looking at building a huge data center, that's just not appropriate."

So Pryor seems to fit the Google game plan. Official word if Google is a go, could come this month.

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