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The City Council held a meeting Monday night at which there was long and heated discussion about undoing the 4-month moratorium on data center projects before Planning & Zoning has had a chance to do their jobs. The attempt failed, thankfully, but I learned a great deal from the discussion.
One council member threw out an impressive number for potential permanent employment, but what I heard was echoes of a sales talk he got from a data center operator. That was partly confirmed later, when the mayor admitted that at least one data center marketer has approached the city.
The focus on undoing the moratorium, which is only for four months, certainly suggests that pressure is being brought to bear. And my earlier judgement of "wise and thoughtful" almost got undone.
When I had a chance to speak, I reminded the Council of the old saying "Marry in haste, repent at leisure." I was not giving them marriage advice. The point is to not rush into relationships that are difficult to end, such as agreements with data center operators.
My background in 19th century history also included early oil field development, and these discussions often remind me of what I learned there about sharp dealing. If you can't talk about it publicly… if it's a limited-time offer... if your neighbor will jump at the chance if you don't... then it is time to be very careful about what you sign. The moratorium will likely be worth every minute in the long run.
This article was meant to focus on the infrastructure that data centers rely on: power, water, fiber optic cable, etc. But that will wait. Let's talk about the types of data centers, instead.
A data center is a building that contains servers (computers that store and process data). It needs power, cooling, and security. And a few people to maintain the systems. What gets done with those servers is determined by who owns and/or operates it. They might stream cat videos and Spotify; they might collect and store highly sensitive personal data that you thought was private.
The data center is just a structure that houses machines. The number of machines determines a lot about the size of the structure and the power and cooling it requires. Data center technology has developed and changed very rapidly. There are still bad systems out there, particularly in poor areas that can't demand better technology. But the newer data centers, the kind likely to be built in central Iowa, are far more efficient.
They will use less water than the early projects, and if Planning and Zoning does its job well, the noise and light pollution will be minimized. (If, however, the moratorium had been lifted, all bets would have been off.) So it all hinges on the type of center built and the integrity of the operator.
Enterprise data centers generally belong to one company and store and process data for that company. Emerson's data center on Governor Rd was an enterprise data center. Wells Fargo, Pioneer, and the University of Iowa all have enterprise data centers. An enterprise data center for a local business is obviously useful to the community, as it supports the business that hires the people and pays the taxes.
Colocation data centers are more like malls. The operator builds the structure and provides the utilities, and the tenants install their own servers for their own purposes. Colocation data centers can be extremely useful for startups or entrepreneurs who might have limited budgets but live in the community and add value to it directly. Several of the data centers in Iowa appear to be colocation operations. Individual companies can also rent server racks in a colocation data center. The differences between the various types get muddy quickly.
Hyperscale data centers are what we commonly think of as "data centers." In Iowa, they are owned and operated by Meta, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Apple and other mega corporations, and they are huge structures, each covering 20 acres or more. These are the data centers being built around Altoona, Des Moines, and Waukee.
The problem is that colocation data centers can be as large as hyperscale projects. And hyperscale data centers can rent out space to smaller companies, just like colocation data centers do. It all depends on who is using the space and how.
And there is big money to be made in connecting buyers and sellers of data center services. Data centers are obviously big business, and that is why Marshalltown and Marshall County need to pay careful attention, ask smart questions, and be thoughtful about potential development here.
Data centers are marketed with promises of many jobs, both during construction and after. They employ a variety of workers for construction: management and supervisors from large national firms, specialized crews hired through staffing partners, and union workers from local and regional union halls. Note that there are very few jobs for general construction workers from rural areas like Marshalltown.
In fact, the jobs go to experienced data center construction crews, so a data center is great for local hotels and restaurants, but not so much for local workers. And once they're up and running, data centers employ relatively few people for their size. Look at a list of the jobs in a data center: network engineers, technicians, database administrators, electricians, and HVAC engineers.
According to one data center tracking website, Iowa currently has 50 operational data centers, with 9 more currently under construction, and an additional 15 proposed projects. A second site lists 116 data centers in the state. If you visit some of those tracking sites, you might realize that they actually belong to marketers of data centers and are not tracking them for the public good.
So the question remains: what are the local benefits of having a data center? I have been gathering wide-ranging information about what goes into making up this new technology and its costs and benefits with the goal of helping Marshalltown and Marshall County gain knowledge and power in these decisions. Many of the benefits are collateral in that they don't and won't come from a data center but from the companies that provide services and utilities to them. They are still benefits to the community, but they can be harder to see.
And when you get right down to it, we are all using data centers all the time. Scrolling on your phone? Streaming videos? Playing games online? Asking "Doctor Google" why your dog is limping? Facebook? Marshalltown government meeting agendas? It's all moving through data centers somewhere.
Personally, I think we should spread the costs around evenly to all users, with every town having its own proportionately-sized data center to support its habits (just like they all had a post office when we wrote letters). But that is unlikely to happen, so I'll just continue to document what I learn, and I will continue to post the links and related information on getyourdatahere.org. Next up: infrastructure!
Annie Grieshop has lived in rural Marshall County for nearly 20 years and enjoys researching history, technology, and public policies that shape local communities.