Project Summary

In late 2004, the GCEDC began receiving requests from a site selection company out of Texas that was looking for a data center site in Grant County. It wasn't until late early 2006 that the site selectors revealed that they were representing Microsoft.

Microsoft broke ground at the Port of Quincy's Industrial Park May 30, 2006 and held the ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of the data center less than a year later in April 2007.

The data center was quickly filled to capacity and with the passage of legislation in 2010 that waived sales tax on server equipment for data centers Microsoft broke ground on a second data center.

Microsoft's second data center utilizes container technology which is more energy and water efficient than the previous data center. Instead of building large areas of raised floor, the data center instead houses individual containers full of servers. The containers look very similar to shipping containers except the inside has been modified into a mini data center. The containers are pre-constructed and loaded with servers and shipped to the new data center where they will be plugged in to the network.

Updated: July 2019
NAICS: 518200 - Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services
Employment: 376
Annual Payroll: $31,862,240

SOC Occupation % of Industry Average Yearly Salary
43-4051 Customer Service Representatives 8.11% $38,740
15-1132 Software Developers, Applications 7.95% $103,680
15-1151 Computer User Support Specialists 6.57% $55,680
15-1121 Computer Systems Analysts 5.93% $91,590
41-3099 Sales Representatives, Services, All Other 4.59% $73,510
15-1133 Software Developers, Systems Software 4.51% $100,450
43-9021 Data Entry Keyers 3.46% $29,250
11-3021 Computer and Information Systems Managers 2.90% $153,910
15-1142 Network and Computer Systems Administrators 2.60% $86,680
15-1131 Computer Programmers 2.34% $82,890