Apple's Massive North Carolina Data Center Ready By End of Year

[53buick]

I would also add, it looks like it takes up a lot of square footage. If they built it as a 10 story building the footprint could be reduced.
I also find it sad, it appears to not have solar panels on the roof. Large flat buildings like this should be *required* to install solar to do something useful with their roofs and offset their carbon use. And/or it should be painted white, or have a green/grass roof. Sprawling buildings must be made efficient.
I'll reserve judgement because it's not done and maybe solar panels have not arrived to install yet. But I also am going to guess that NC does not have many green initiatives or building ordinances like CA does.

North Carolina is a very progressive state in the arts, technology and environmental concerns. N.C. may not have as many "green initiatives" as California, but they have loads of sustainability programs and really push "green" education. I would think solar panels would be one of the last things installed.

I'm super stoked that they came to the South East! Go Tarheels!

 

[vigilante.zen]

U guys are amazing....

Its not up for discussion.... New flash Apple decided to come here.... It makes plenty of sense for them otherwise they wouldnt have done it... Jeez guys... Really is there not more pressing things to be worried about? Really?!?! Well I think its better for them to choose what the hell they wanna do, not you guys who think they know whats best for a company that you have no clue in which is whats best for them.

 

[chaosconan]

Where are all the solar panels that's supposed to be on the roof?

They should have built the datacenter beneath the ground like in the movie "The Island" and have 2 huge turbine sticking out of the ground for cooling.

 

[VicMacs]

Where are all the solar panels that's supposed to be on the roof?

They should have built the datacenter beneath the ground like in the movie "The Island" and have 2 huge turbine sticking out of the ground for cooling.

and here i was thinking the same thing! good one! yeah this could also be fanboy-in unicycle-powered…

 

[globalhemp]

Research Triangle Park (RTP)

Its nice to see that Apple has an East Coast (US) facility. I'm not sure if Apple still has employees in Austin and Colorado (where they used to manufacturer Mac's in the US).

I'm still surprised over the choice to use Maiden, NC. This is due to what seems to be a fact of their not being any universities or otherwise large pool of high tech workers in this local.

By contrast, the Research Triangle Park (RTP), a 7,000 acre science park located outside Raleigh-Durham-Cary area is home to many high-tech companies including Cisco, Motorola, Ericson, Sony, IBM, etc.

Therefore, I would suggest that this may more of a "call center" where customer service will be taken care of. That is, until I learn more about this facility.

 

[Chalkperson]

The Tax Break for Apple in North Carolina is $48 Million...5% of the cost of the Building...

 

[kernkraft]

Impressive and wonderful!

But you cannot touch the corners... If you'd ever want a data centre, wait what Consumer Reports will say about this one.

 

[CreativeOutlaw]

Yes, another way for Apple to soak their iTunes customer base for content. This time it will be streaming TV/movies at a premium iPrice.

It depends how you look at it and how much TV you watch per month... for someone who only watches a handful of shows regularly (and would appreciate the option of watching them when they want to) it would probably be cheaper than a $50+/month full cable plan. As far as the whole cloud computing thing goes... my theory for the future is companies like Apple setting up their own in-house torrents.. i.e. 20-50 copies of their own media libraries on various servers to allow much more rapid download... this would allow high quality video downloads to become much more feasible. Very often I'll choose to torrent an album or vid becuase it arrives 10 times faster than through itunes.

 

[deconstruct60]

T.. the servers that they currently have hosted at existing datacenters.

Err. Apple didn't have to build a data center last time. Around 5-7 years ago there were several large empty ones around to buy as leftover dotcom fallout .

http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2006/02/27/story5.html

Technically the NC one has about 5x more space, but they have been in a large one for a long time. Like this one they didn't fill that other one up to 100% right away. Took years to get up to max capacity. Same thing will happen in NC. Probably 75% will be empty for first couple of years. Sure there may be some spill over in a few places, but the impression that Apple doesn't already have a large data center that they solely occupy is way offbase. Apple likely has others besides this Fremont one for backend and corporte infrastructure work. (again the NC one is big enough to serve as a failover site for Apple's entire CA operations. Likewise any other set up they have in TX and other locations. )

Apple has such a large internet presence that having just one verges on being irresponsible. The NC isn't going to be the only site so it is misguided to judge Apple's whole set-up judged on just the one building. Their Internet service traffic growth over time is very large so need an empty building so will have space 3-5 years from now.

There is empty Silicon Valley space now just like there was in the early 2000. Ironically, these folks http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/M...91&tier=4&id=B3FD9F25356749A8890CF3B872F5C744 are using an old Apple factory that made computers to deploy a midsized one.

 

[Speedtoy]

Excellent points! This is just basic physical common sense.

If you're building a large fridge..sure. Just you're not near anything to put in it.

But a data center of this scope, and an enterprise of this scope, needs data.
Lots of it.


Its on top of major telecommunications paths there..and with tons of tax benefits in that area..and nuclear power in that region IS cheap..and hey, insulation solves most of the climate issues anyhow..DC energy is more power heat, not outside heat.


You wanna move galaxy sized buckets of bandwidth..go to where it's at, not the cold air for the A/C.

 

[Speedtoy]

And one in Europe to off-set Europe?
And one in Asia to off-set Asia?
etc.

America isn't the only country/continent

No..but the USA -is- the core of the Internet.


Everyone else is a small shoot off of it.


That DC sits squarely in the middle of most of their revenue on the internet map. Its as far from western europe, as it is the west coast..and right on top of the east coast..when you put it into a latency point of view...which would be the proper point of view.

But sure, when an Asian DC would make financial sense, it'll happen.

 

[SBlue1]

skynet???

 

[msavwah]

iAds is probably a big factor in all of this.

 

[KnightWRX]

Quebec has been trying to separate from Canada for more than 30 years and you have to speak French to work there. Sending your kids to English schools is forbidden.

I think companies like Ubisoft, EA, Radialpoint and other technological leaders disagree with your assertions that any of that is an issue. Montreal is one of the biggest tech capitals in North America. Oh and, c'est quoi le problème avec le français ?

And it's not forbidden to send your kids to English schools. Why would we have English schools if it was ? Empty buildings sound kind of like a waste...

(Next time, make sure no one in Quebec is reading before making ignorant statements about the province).

 

[cjrciadt]

Datacenter! This is just to hold Apple's large cash reserves!!

 

[dazzer21]

X-Serves?

?

 

[iGuardian]

And it's not forbidden to send your kids to English schools. Why would we have English schools if it was ? Empty buildings sound kind of like a waste...

Do they teach English as an option in public schools like how we have french immersion as a free public option in BC? Just curious, I've heard that they don't, but I've heard other people say that they do.

 

[KnightWRX]

Do they teach English as an option in public schools like how we have french immersion as a free public option in BC? Just curious, I've heard that they don't, but I've heard other people say that they do.

English courses are a mandatory part of the French curriculum at every grade from elementary school all the way through what we call CEGEP. Native English citizens can opt to send their children to an English curriculum if they wish, native French citizens need to use the private English system for 3 years and they can use the public English system for their children.

 

[bergmef]

X-Serves?

Mini's

 

[iGuardian]

English courses are a mandatory part of the French curriculum at every grade from elementary school all the way through what we call CEGEP. Native English citizens can opt to send their children to an English curriculum if they wish, native French citizens need to use the private English system for 3 years and they can use the public English system for their children.

Ah okay, so that's how it works.

 

[AidenShaw]

X-Serves?

It would be interesting to know the equipment and operating systems that Apple uses in their datacenters.

The X-Serve is a nice low end server, but it's not adequate for very much of Apple's server needs.

 

[ckeck]

Huge tax breaks and cheap power. One of the main reasons many companies choose Texas for data center is cheap power. Thats why most of Rackspaces data centers are down there.

Texas would have made perfect sense not only due to lower power costs but a more reliable and independent power grid as well, plus centrally located. But the fact they have some West coast DCs probably impacted that decision.

And +1 for Rackspace!

 

[Arcadie]

How is a sever farm in North Carolina going to enable my iPhone to wirelessly sync to iTunes with my computer?

With this crazy new technology they have dubbed 3G

 

[Arcadie]

NC seems like a hot (temperature wise) place to have a data center. Cooling is a major cost factor in data centers. Would have been interesting if Apple had picked Maine, Quebec or Iceland to house a datacenter, all have first class data connections and low average climate temperatures.

No..
Maine has only a few connections, LEVEL 3 not being one of them

Apple will not build their main DC in another country.

The tempeture outside really dosnt have much effect on a DC considering the thickness of the walls and the 500,000+ servers heat exhaust will make even a DC in antartica hot as hell. Plus its not like you can just "open the windows" and let the cold air in, it must be sent through a dehumidifier which first...

 

[appleseed76]

NC seems like a hot (temperature wise) place to have a data center. Cooling is a major cost factor in data centers. Would have been interesting if Apple had picked Maine, Quebec or Iceland to house a datacenter, all have first class data connections and low average climate temperatures.

I see your point, but I'm sure the location was well thought out. Especially considering that they dropped a billion dollars to build it. Maine may have unions which would increase labor costs and build times and things are far more expensive in Quebec, not so sure about Iceland. Also, jobs at the server farm can go to Americans and NC is an up-and-coming tech area. The triangle I think they call it.