One of Microsoft's latest data centers is 1.3 miles around

Microsoft has completed its first building at its Quincy, Washington data center and a leisurely walk around it is about 1.3 miles.

That little ditty comes from Michael Manos, senior director of Microsoft's data center services unit. Manos was interviewed by Tina Wood at Channel 10.

Some other key highlights from Manos:

• The general idea for Microsoft's data centers is to make them a development platform (presumably for cloud services in the future).
• Microsoft takes being green and sustainability seriously to be socially conscious and save money. Manos didn't serve up many specifics.
• The software giant goes through a 31-factor heat map to select locations for data centers. These factors include the price of land, power capacity and fiber-optic availability. These maps are also used to find good locations to position Microsoft for the future.
• Microsoft has started a data center in San Antonio.

Microsoft's data center strategy--along with the plans of Yahoo, Google, Intel and others--should be closely watched as this group will likely preface where things are going in the future for other enterprises.