Sharing the celebratory scissors, Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang and Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman cut the ribbon for Yahoo!’s data center opening in LaVista. Photo from governor.nebraska.gov.

On Wednesday, Yahoo! opened its new 180,000-square-foot data center in LaVista, located just south of Omaha. Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang was on hand for the celebration. In 1994, Yang, along with his business partner David Filo, founded Yahoo! while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University.

The Nebraska data center is servicing Internet traffic around the world, and once Phase II is completed, it will be one of the company’s largest data center facilities. Currently, the company services more traffic out of Omaha than it does out of Silicon Valley. At its peak, the facility will employee approximately 50* people from the region.

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I had the opportunity to speak with a few of our elected officials, Governor Dave Heineman (pictured left) and Congressman Lee Terry (not pictured), as well as Yahoo! executives, including David Dibble (center), executive vice president of Yahoo! Service Engineering & Operation

Just below those interviews, you can watch highlights of feedback from the officials as well as opening remarks, including those of Yang (right). 

Photo from governor.nebraska.gov.

To read additional coverage of the opening, visit:

• governor.nebraska.gov – Nebraska Celebrates Ribbon-Cutting for Yahoo! Data Center
• omaha.com – Yahoo unveils La Vista center 
• datacenterdynamics.com – Yahoo opens data center doors in La Vista, Nebraska (uses Silicon Prairie phrase)

*Update on Saturday, 12:05 p.m. – This post originally stated: “At its peak, the facility will employee approximately 200 people from the region.” In actuality, at the peak of the data center facility, it will be employing approximately 50 people. With the combination of the Data Center and the Sales and Customer Support Center, Yahoo! will be employing approximately 200 people in the greater Omaha area. (via Terrell Karlsten, Director, Yahoo! Global Communications)