There are clear benefits to having foreign data centers- lower energy cost, lower human costs, less chance of a natural disaster wiping out the whole infrastructure, etc. Some countries even advertise to large companies.
Still, I've always wondered how something like this would fragment a corporate culture- how does a manager maintain a uniform feel when people are oceans apart? My company is considering a setup like this and I'm wondering what those with a similar setup think.
I don't think it really matters. Most companies have data centers in other cities hundreds if not thousands of miles away in the same country.
As long as the people over there are competant, who cares where they are?
I have to wonder out aloud... why does it have to affect company culture?
I have had worked for several companies that are off-shore (well, relative to the mother company), and have offices in my country (the Philippines, specifically). Most of the setups involve having either a foreign manager here in the country, or they have local managers who are trained to be well versed in the "way things are done" in the mother company.
In both cases while there are only minor effects of cultural nuances and idiocyncracies -- small things like, a typical southeast/east Asian will not be as assertive and as expressive of their ideas and concerns as opposed to, say, Americans. Other than that the other major concern will be language barriers (which are non-issue for countries with extensive English education programs like the Philippines and India).
There are a multitude of other issues regarding offshoring that is discussed in another question, and I particularly like this answer. Please read up on it as I believe it tackles other issues you are likely to be interested in.