Piggybacking on the state's success in recruiting a Microsoft data centre to Cheyenne, Laramie will develop the Cirrus Sky Technology park to aid recruitment of other companies seeking to build cloud-computing centres in the region.

Verizon last year identified Laramie as an ideal location for a data centre, but plans to build fell through when the communications giant acquired a Florida company with data centres already in place. The mild summer climate of the region helps with cooling costs for buildings filled with heat-generating equipment.  Growth in the technology sector is almost a given, especially in cloud computing right now, and Gov. Matt Mead has proclaimed his desire to attract such projects to the state. Microsoft got US$10 million in incentives from the state to build its US$112 million data centre, previously known as Project Summit. Mead and other proponents say the cloud has the ability to provide well-paying jobs and may also usher in a new economy for Wyoming, which has traditionally fed on energy and agriculture

Source: Wyoming Business Report