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Apple's NC Data Center Plot Larger Than Originally Thought
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So here's what I'm interested in...
Where's all their connectivity coming from? When you build a datacenter, you don't just have one provider (or even multiple providers) with single paths to their POP's that can't provide that bandwidth you need. So we're talking multi-path, tier 1 provided, OC-768 connections in a rural area more than 45 miles from a major city. Honestly, I think this is the more amazing part of this build-out.... that fiber is coming from somewhere/somebody and it would be interesting to see that info.
Where's all their connectivity coming from? When you build a datacenter, you don't just have one provider (or even multiple providers) with single paths to their POP's that can't provide that bandwidth you need. So we're talking multi-path, tier 1 provided, OC-768 connections in a rural area more than 45 miles from a major city. Honestly, I think this is the more amazing part of this build-out.... that fiber is coming from somewhere/somebody and it would be interesting to see that info.
What is interesting is how little is known. This means that the scores of construction workers, the dozens of delivery drivers, the horde of technicians who connected the facility to the fibre conduits don't own Macs. Not a single one of them have written in to MR to tell us what they have seen.
Even if they were under NDA, and abided by the terms - not one wrote into MR to say "I know something, but I can't tell you. But it's big!
"
Why all this secrecy? And does Catcher in the Rye come into the picture? Were all the workers screened at hiring by being asked who Justin Long was, and if they smiled - even a little bit - told to try the construction site down the street?
Inquiring minds - and all that, eh?
Even if they were under NDA, and abided by the terms - not one wrote into MR to say "I know something, but I can't tell you. But it's big!
"Why all this secrecy? And does Catcher in the Rye come into the picture? Were all the workers screened at hiring by being asked who Justin Long was, and if they smiled - even a little bit - told to try the construction site down the street?
Inquiring minds - and all that, eh?
It really depends on what you're moving and how often it needs to get changed. I would imagine Apple's datacenter is connected to multiple backbones which would feed the internet.
Akamai is also one of Apple's content and serving providers. As long as they have good point-to-point connectivity with Apple, they can pretty much serve the end user. Akamai actually served the last couple Apple events.
Apple is not going to enter the search market. It just doesn't make sense for them. Look how with how much money Microsoft tried it and how little they accomplished. Unlike computers there is only one thing in that is interesting for people in a search engine and that is finding the right page. And Apple simply has no special knowledge there. They would need to buy that somewhere.
But besides all these considerations. The one thing you need for set up a search engine that crawls the web is bandwidth. There again is no point in building one single huge datacenter in NC. You want several smaller places that are close to important internet hubs, so that you have a fast connection and short routes. And you want them all over the world or at least the western hemisphere.
I have no idea what this datacenter is all about, but my money is on something that needs alot of processing power rather then something that needs large bandwidth like a streaming farm.
T.
As someone who's been in the 'server/hosting/networking' biz for a good few years, I can say that I cant see this being used for major user connectivity. Why? Let me explain.
Lets take Google - everyone knows it and its a prime example. Google are arguably the most visited site in the world. Because of this they have datacenters all over the place - the idea being that even if a bunch of the DC's went down for any reason (terrorists, fires, natural disasters, etc) they would be able to continue running with hardly any impact.
Lets say Apple uses this new datacenter for say, a free MobileMe service (e.g free diskspace), or a spotify type service.
What happens when the datacenter goes down (which it will - it happens all the time and is NOT something that can be avoided)? We all loose connectivity. It would be foolish to rely on one site to serve all those demands.
Which brings me to my second point. Having everyone connect to a single datacenter location is going to be a HUGE bottleneck. It would actually work out cheaper and much more reliable to have multiple smaller datacenters in various locations. If Apple are going to be hooking up just 1 DC they will need a hell of a lot of bandwidth, and they would have a big problem trying to get that from a lot of providers in the area.
My guess? Its a processing farm, providing processing power for encryptions, conversions, etc.
Lets take Google - everyone knows it and its a prime example. Google are arguably the most visited site in the world. Because of this they have datacenters all over the place - the idea being that even if a bunch of the DC's went down for any reason (terrorists, fires, natural disasters, etc) they would be able to continue running with hardly any impact.
Lets say Apple uses this new datacenter for say, a free MobileMe service (e.g free diskspace), or a spotify type service.
What happens when the datacenter goes down (which it will - it happens all the time and is NOT something that can be avoided)? We all loose connectivity. It would be foolish to rely on one site to serve all those demands.
Which brings me to my second point. Having everyone connect to a single datacenter location is going to be a HUGE bottleneck. It would actually work out cheaper and much more reliable to have multiple smaller datacenters in various locations. If Apple are going to be hooking up just 1 DC they will need a hell of a lot of bandwidth, and they would have a big problem trying to get that from a lot of providers in the area.
My guess? Its a processing farm, providing processing power for encryptions, conversions, etc.
I'm willing to bet that cloud computing will make its way over to iOS devices, and that Apple will want to make a copy of everything on your phone. Images, contacts, etc etc. in the cloud.
3rd parties like facebook will be given access to this data, and iPhone users won't bother uploading to facebook via their phone anymore.
3rd parties like facebook will be given access to this data, and iPhone users won't bother uploading to facebook via their phone anymore.
what if....
is there any possibility that along with being the server farm it might be a distribution center or Apple East coast campus? Maybe they will bring jobs back to the states and build iPads in N.C. and that's why Obama privately met with Steve to thank him for creating jobs with out stimulus money
is there any possibility that along with being the server farm it might be a distribution center or Apple East coast campus? Maybe they will bring jobs back to the states and build iPads in N.C. and that's why Obama privately met with Steve to thank him for creating jobs with out stimulus money
Bandwidth to the site?
Does anybody actually know what kind of data bandwidth is being installed for this site, or how close it is to existing high bandwidth conduits?
My speculation is that Apple will move into cloud storage and cloud computing to enable more powerful capabilities in mobile devices.
Does anybody actually know what kind of data bandwidth is being installed for this site, or how close it is to existing high bandwidth conduits?
My speculation is that Apple will move into cloud storage and cloud computing to enable more powerful capabilities in mobile devices.
is there any possibility that along with being the server farm it might be a distribution center or Apple East coast campus? Maybe they will bring jobs back to the states and build iPads in N.C. and that's why Obama privately met with Steve to thank him for creating jobs with out stimulus money
Wow, I can't believe someone beat me to throwing that out there. It's definitely a factory. Get the iDevices of Foxconn with their suicides and off-white iPhones and leaks, and bring jobs into the US with a tax break from the Obama meeting. It all makes sense now!
Hint: Bondi Blue iMac lost the floppy
When the first iMac was introduced (Bondi Blue), Apple choose to drop including a floppy disk drive.
Datacenter will most likely be used for online storage by means of cloud computing and cloud storage.
Otherwise, Apple are possibly looking to become a telcom carrier by brand name and customer service only; actual data will be carried over existing carriers networks.
When the first iMac was introduced (Bondi Blue), Apple choose to drop including a floppy disk drive.
Datacenter will most likely be used for online storage by means of cloud computing and cloud storage.
Otherwise, Apple are possibly looking to become a telcom carrier by brand name and customer service only; actual data will be carried over existing carriers networks.
That extra 70 acres cost the what? Less that $2M? The simple answer is that they just want privacy. It is a $100+ M facility. Why wouldn't you spend another $2-3M so that had no neighbors and partially controlled the traffic flowing through the area. Can just add that to the likely already $1+M security infrastructure budget.
As much as people are making a big deal of it. It is much better if this does not become some theme park destination spot for people and car traffic. A high value datacenter should be so boring that folks just drive past it without a second thought.
Some ding-dong developer could open some strip mall across the street and bring traffic. Maybe hoping that folks in the data center will come down for lunch and/or get some of the Apple religious zealots to stop by and catch a glimpse of the all great Apple temple. Or perhaps worse some other smaller data center shop try to buy and piggyback on the now nearby fiber drops.
If Apple owns the land on the other side of the street they can just turn it into a green space. Depending upon the tax break deal is with NC they may be just helping underwrite a new forest reserve on that patch of land across the street. (Apple gets break on taxes on land in hopes will turn it into commerical space. Apple just doesn't turn those parcels into commerical space. Just sit on it. ) There may be a temporary situation where they use the area across the street for staging the construction parking and offices when the second building goes up. [ for the first building the construction folks were on the the site of the second building. Obviously you can't repeat that the second time. ]
Besides it is environmentally friendly to replace the trees ripped down for the new buildings with more trees somewhere else. In addition to the improving the security, they can help balance out keeping the immediate area rural.
In one of these other threads someone mentioned that Google's nearby center doesn't appear on Google maps/Google Earth (very old pictures presented) despite the surrounding area having updated photos.
Very slim to none.
Apple outsources most of its distrubtion to FedEx and UPS. There is no upside in bringing more traffic and people to the data center location.
Second, that is no where near major shipping freeways. Why would put a major distribution center far away from those ???????? There is a freeway nearby but it is not a major federal interstate hwy. Niether is the closest intersection to one all that near.
Third, don't you think Apple already has a East coast distribution center? It isn't like they just started shipping lots of physical product in the last two years.
The CA data center in not that close to the Apple campus (on opposite side of Bay) . Nor is there a major data center in Austin. Or other Apple campus locations.
Maybe they will bring jobs back to the states and build iPads in N.C. and that's why Obama privately met with Steve to thank him for creating jobs with out stimulus money
Apple will likely just point to the Apple Store jobs they are creating.
wow. so it could end up being 1.5 million sq ft then? dang that's a lot of space. i just hope they announce something soon with the cloud