With more than 350 million users, Facebook finally decided it needed its own datacenter to store and process all those profiles, messages and photos.

The company broke ground in Prineville, Ore., today in a ceremony with local officials, its vice president of technical operations, Jonathan Heiliger, noted in a Facebook blog post this morning:

"Initially, as most Internet startups do, we leased data center space alongside other companies in the same building. As our user base continued to grow and we developed Facebook into a much richer service, we reached the point where it was more efficient to lease entire buildings on our own. We are now ready to build our own."

Facebook joins Microsoft, Google, Amazon.com, Yahoo and other datacenter operators drawn by the inland Northwest's cheap electricity and welcoming municipalities.

The Oregonian reported that Facebook is asking for a 10-year tax break for its center, which will employ about 35.

A rendering of the datacenter, provided by Facebook: