On the news here in Finland

The radio news cited cool climate and abundant, cheap electricity as pull factors. Electricity is comparatively cheap here. They are currently building a new nuclear power station, and more are planned. The closure of the paper mills also means there is less demand on a local scale.

The area was hard hit by the closure of the mills, so I'm sure they also got a good deal with any deals involving the local authorities.

@Martin: AFAIK Google datacenters work on the principle of cheap, redundant, replaceable servers. Every once in a while they just pull out the dead ones and stick in new ones. Single server failure is irrelevant. The electricity supply would be a challenge, unless it was wave powered.

Paris, because she's all about the pull factor.