I asked in June if the mega data center trend would prove to be a "boom or bust" for the players.  Microsoft is now learning something about the 'bust' side of the equation. It turns out big data centers are big targets for the tax man.

In August, Microsoft's blog for the Azure platform announced, "In the next few weeks, we’re going to disable the “USA - Northwest” option for new applications. Existing applications will continue to run unaffected, and you’ll continue to be able to modify and update your existing applications...This change is in preparation for our migration out of the northwest region. Due to a change in local tax laws, we’ve decided to migrate Windows Azure applications out of our northwest data center prior to our commercial launch this November."

Microsoft's blog post did not reply to a comment requesting explanation of the tax issue, although tax policy for mega data centers in Washington state have been controversial ever since the Seattle Post Intelligencer reported, "Microsoft and a handful of other tech giants are quietly securing a state tax break that could be worth more than $1 billion through legislation forged amid corporate threats and an interstate bidding war for computer server farms that have become the backbone of the Internet." Some observers have also tied Yahoo's decision to suspend work earlier this year on its Washington data center to the tax issue.

Loose Bolts blogger Mike Manos responded with a vision in which "...the cloud will need to be on the move, even if its a slow move. Because just as there are forces looking to regulate and control the cloud, there are also forces in play where locales are interested in attracting and cultivating the cloud....A giant cat an mouse game on a global level...you might see certain types of load compute or transaction work moving around the planet to align with more technically savvy or advantageous locales..."

Maybe those modular server containers used by mega data centers will give whole new meaning to the term 'mobile computing'. And then there is always that Google patent for a sea-going data center.