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Facebook Plans To Break Ground On A Second Iowa Data Center Soon......
Facebook is just about ready to finish construction on its 476,000-square-foot data center in Altoona, Iowa. Even before this new facility goes online, though, the company today announced that it plans to build a second data center right next to it.

The company still has to jump through the usual regulatory hurdles to get this project approved, however. Its plans are up for review at the City of Altoona Planning and Zoning Board tomorrow evening and will then have to get approval from the city council in May. Assuming all goes as planned, the company will break ground shortly after that.

10155283_609115135845743_768270335_nThe new data center will be roughly the same size of the original building. According to Facebook’s own stats, 460 people we involved in building the Altoona 1 data center. They logged a total of 435,000 hours.

Iowa has become a popular destination for data center operators. Google has a large facility there (largely powered by wind power) and Microsoft is planning to build a $1.1 billion facility in West Des Moines, too.

Facebook’s decision was surely influenced by Iowa’s positive tax climate for its operations. The company was awarded $18 million in state tax credits last year according to the Des Moines Register, and, as part of its agreement with the city of Altoona, the company won’t have to pay property taxes on the facility for 20 years.

Facebook’s other data centers are located in Prineville, Ore., Forest City, N.C., and Luleå, Sweden.

Google+ Is Walking Dead
Today, Google’s Vic Gundotra announced that he would be leaving the company after eight years. The first obvious question is where this leaves Google+, Gundotra’s baby and primary project for the past several of those years.

What we’re hearing from multiple sources is that Google+ will no longer be considered a product, but a platform — essentially ending its competition with other social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

A Google representative has vehemently denied these claims. “Today’s news has no impact on our Google+ strategy — we have an incredibly talented team that will continue to build great user experiences across Google+, Hangouts and Photos.”

According to two sources, Google has apparently been reshuffling the teams that used to form the core of Google+, a group numbering between 1,000 and 1,200 employees. We hear that there’s a new building on campus, so many of those people are getting moved physically, as well — not necessarily due to Gundotra’s departure.

As part of these staff changes, the Google Hangouts team will be moving to the Android team, and it’s likely that the photos team will follow, these people said. Basically, talent will be shifting away from the Google+ kingdom and towards Android as a platform, we’re hearing.

We’ve heard Google has not yet decided what to do with the teams not going to Android, and that Google+ is not “officially” dead, more like walking dead: “When you fire the top dog and take away all resources it is what it is.” It will take copious amounts of work for it to un-zombie, if that’s even a possibility.

It’s not clear, according to our sources’ intel, where the rest of the employees will go, but the assumption is that Larry Page will follow Mark Zuckerberg’s lead at Facebook and send the bulk of them to mobile roles.