Apple's North Carolina Data Center to Focus on Cloud Computing?

[skate71290]

Good points, but subscription would be crap

Take it a step further... What about iLife and iWork '10 being subscription based and all online? Lowers the cost of initial hw/sw, cheaper on the user's end for hw, and less worry about piracy since everyone using it has to pay per month...

then again apple are losing money on hardware? good idea but would one off payment be better.. would be extremely difficult to pirate the software wouldn't it (not really sure though) x

 

[bentoon]

All my Apple (and other software?) Products will run from the cloud
So I can edit & do Motion work on my iTablet

 

[Bonte]

Google is king of the cloud, i don't think Apple can grow to that size or near it. iTunes itself will probably grow tenfold the next few years (especially when adding more video, books and music rentals!!) so this could well be only a necessary upgrade to provide a good service in the future.

 

[skate71290]

sounds good

All my Apple (and other software?) Products will run from the cloud
So I can edit & do Motion work on my iTablet

oooo iTablet soo getting that.. hopefully won't be a cell network type thing, but just a standalone handheld device running full Snow Leopard, is it possible to stream Adobe CS4 from a server its like a 6GB piece of software right? x

 

[Peace]

An East Coast presence would address latency issues....and such big deals don't ever come without some other little 'things' here and there: don't be surprised to hear that North Carolina runs a couple of very big fat pipes along the I-40 corridor (if not further).

Figure at $16K/mile * 300 miles = $5M ... which is 0.5% of the total cost of the $1B data center.

Doesn't seem like a big deal to me, percentage-wise.


-hh

It would be very helpful in opening up braodband.

Despite the (clueless) "You don't get that in rural North Carolina" quote in the article, it's not a problem. The Greensboro, NC area offers direct ties to the Tier 1Internet backbone.

I'm also guessing it may have to do with the Internet 2. Raleigh,N.C. is a drop site in it.

warning HUGE map.

 

[skate71290]

It would be very helpful in opening up braodband.



I'm also guessing it may have to do with the Internet 2. Raleigh,N.C. is a drop site in it.

warning HUGE map.

i don't get this map, does it show the main infrastructure of our blessed internet (like all the main routers) sorry im such a noob, im good with computers just shocking at networking lol x

 

[Target362]

I dont want EVERYTHING on the cloud. who;s the old guy who thought of this? please

 

[skate71290]

why?

I dont want EVERYTHING on the cloud. who;s the old guy who thought of this? please

our wonderful Mr Jobs of course lol, how come you don't want it? i can see two reasons, limited usage/slow internet or if you are doing some "legal" downloading it can be a pain in the ass lol x

 

[Peace]

i don't get this map, does it show the main infrastructure of our blessed internet (like all the main routers) sorry im such a noob, im good with computers just shocking at networking lol x

It'a a map of the ( currently ) closed Internet II..The other internet that is operated by universities and tech companies.It's backbone is 20 times faster that the arpanet ( the one we use ).
You can read about it here.

 

[wackymacky]

Yes, Apple, like Google and Microsoft just trying to rule the world.

I like having control and ownership of my data. I feel secure having my data on on my HD and backed up on another drive I have physical control over.

I like being responsible for the security of my LAN.

I agree that this is likely the way of the future, but I don’t want to go there yet.

 

[mwp98223]

Take it a step further... What about iLife and iWork '10 being subscription based and all online? Lowers the cost of initial hw/sw, cheaper on the user's end for hw, and less worry about piracy since everyone using it has to pay per month...

A subscription base is an interesting idea. I was just wondering whether it is worth the annual $80 upgrade to iLife, but I do it. But with a subscription I wouldn't really think about it, I would just pay the monthly fee and enjoy the updates as the applications evolve. Good for the consumer, we get the newest and best applications, good for Apple, they get consumers locked in and used to the monthly fee so there is no "selling" of the updates every year.

 

[4np]

Interesting move, makes you think the rumoured tablet devices may very well be cloud oriented. However, one would expect connectivity to be a very important factor, next to storage and computing power. Especially if you have to serve the world?

Content Delivery Networks allow fast global content delivery using distributed data hubs around the globe and hence limiting latency. However a central data center in NC could cause increased latency for global delivery? You really wouldn't want any lag using your cloud application, it should be as snappy as it would be when running locally. Perhaps other datacenters will -eventually- pop up in Europe and Asia as well?

It would be interesting to see if Apple was buying dark fibre, just like Google has been doing...

While the Internet 2 idea is interesting, I don't think that's part of the reasoning to build a datacenter in NC. Internet 2 is a closed US based network for -mainly- universities.

First step is to make Mobile Me free though I would say it's added value to buying a Mac if it's free, allow integration with all your Mac devices wherever they are. Perhaps that's what the datacenter is intended for? Opening up mobile me is going to increase the load and storage demands, and latency is less of an issue in MobileMe than it is in cloud computing. It seems like I'm not alone in this idea

Don't you guys see it? It's simple...Apple will soon offer MobileMe FOR FREE to every Mac, iPhone, iBook (tablet) user!!!

Also, as mentioned before, I like to be in control of my applications and data. Cloud computing is a very nice solution for small internet enabled devices so you can rely on CPU power and storage at some data center instead of physical storage in your device, but for a more powerfull machine I don't see the reason in running your apps and storing your data in the cloud.

 

[DELLsFan]

Who knows what wizardry Apple may have up its corporate sleeve? I, for one, would be happy with more storage space per user on Me.com.

That would be nice, but I'll take a faster, more efficient Mobile Me that costs about 1/2 as much instead.

 

[krye]

Good, does that mean the MobileMe is not going to suck and I'll actually be able to use my friggin' iDisk?

 

[kas23]

Yes, Apple, like Google and Microsoft just trying to rule the world.

I like having control and ownership of my data. I feel secure having my data on on my HD and backed up on another drive I have physical control over.

I like being responsible for the security of my LAN.

I agree that this is likely the way of the future, but I don’t want to go there yet.

More importantly, I don't want to have to pay to access my data, which is where, I'm afraid, this is going.

 

[jouster]

I think it's pretty obvious Apple is just planning on having the highest Folding@Home score.

Oh yeah? Well, I got a Lombard G3 here that says otherwise!

 

[MacFly123]

It's ironic that the Internet (nee ARPANET) was created to keep everything connected when the world was crippled!

Yes lol. I guess because before the digital age, the digital served as a second environment. Whereas now, if everything is digital, the second environment reverts to the former physical, which to us would be world ending lol! Smart people have often said, don't put all your eggs in one basket.

 

[jouster]

Yes lol. I guess because before the digital age, the digital served as a second environment. Whereas now, if everything is digital, the second environment reverts to the former physical, which to us would be world ending lol! Smart people have often said, don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Not sure I understand the concern. It's inconceivable to me that Apple would not allow local storage of data if that reflected most users' preference. Even if the only way to access the apps involved some kind of network, I think they'd have to wait for a far more pervasive, much cheaper option than anything that currently exists if they wanted to sell the device.

 

[jbernie]

An East Coast presence would address latency issues....and such big deals don't ever come without some other little 'things' here and there: don't be surprised to hear that North Carolina runs a couple of very big fat pipes along the I-40 corridor (if not further).

Despite the (clueless) "You don't get that in rural North Carolina" quote in the article, it's not a problem. The Greensboro, NC area offers direct ties to the Tier 1 Internet backbone.

I would be interested to know if there is any dark fiber laid in that area which they could activate to also resolve part of the concern, and I think the general consensus would be that if the bakcbones werent there Apple would be reluctant to build as slow response affects customer satisfaction. Unless of course the planned ramp up is slow and there is currently expansion of the data networks out there and just not reported yet.

Interesting article, but calm down on the use of bold. I kept on trying to click links to the largest data centers in the world.

And having the biggest building isn't always the best thing in this type of sector, having multiple redundant but maybe smaller buildings might be more desirable to cover yourself in case of natural disasters, no point having [announcer voice] the worlds biggest data center [/announcer voice] if a disaster turns it into the worlds biggest pile of yet to be recycled computing equipment

 

[Target362]

our wonderful Mr Jobs of course lol, how come you don't want it? i can see two reasons, limited usage/slow internet or if you are doing some "legal" downloading it can be a pain in the ass lol x

Simple:

I like having control and ownership of my data. I feel secure having my data on on my HD and backed up on another drive I have physical control over.

I like being responsible for the security of my LAN.

I agree that this is likely the way of the future, but I don’t want to go there yet.

Couldn't agree more.

 

[iphones4evry1]

Wow!!!!!
Apple has harnessed a way to make the clouds compute for us!!!!
I knew they were working on something revolutionary!!!!

it's from the Heavens! I knew Steve was divine!


The benefits of cloud computing: you can update something on your iPhone in your left hand and it appears on your Tablet in your right hand...after traveling around the world twice from satellite to satellite.

 

[gocardsfan1]

Don't you guys see it? It's simple...Apple will soon offer MobileMe FOR FREE to every Mac, iPhone, iBook (tablet) user!!!

I'm so convinced that that's main drive for the data center! Think of it, it would make so much sense.

Apple will then be able to offer iphones, macs and tablets with email, backup capability, foto and video sharing, website creation (iweb) and storage, online synching between these platforms and even with PCs, all right out of the box!!

The integration, easy of use, simplicity and power it would offer would be a diferentiation factor so huge that would bring in many new hardware clients from windows PCs an other mobile platforms.

This would be the complete solution, possible complemented with permanent 3G access on future Macs and tablets, as with iphones.

And if you think of it, no one else except apple could do this (at least make it so appealing) because only apple creates phones and computers and operating systems for all those devices, and a good cloud service!!

I'm sure this would boost apple's market share in each market to unseen levels. What do you think?

While I like the idea, I don't see it happening. I don't think Apple would spend $1 billion to get no direct revenue in return. While the sales of Apple's hardware would rise, the amount of which it would is too much of a guess for Apple to spend so much money on it. It just seems like a very risky thing to do, and Apple doesn't usually take such huge risks.

 

[jouster]

While I like the idea, I don't see it happening. I don't think Apple would spend $1 billion to get no direct revenue in return. While the sales of Apple's hardware would rise, the amount of which it would is too much of a guess for Apple to spend so much money on it. It just seems like a very risky thing to do, and Apple doesn't usually take such huge risks.

What makes you think they would get no revenue?

 

[Amdahl]

It'a a map of the ( currently ) closed Internet II..The other internet that is operated by universities and tech companies.It's backbone is 20 times faster that the arpanet ( the one we use ).
You can read about it here.

That thing is old news. China has Internet 3.1 already operational, and it has way more bandwidths and TCPs than this guy. They are the of the Internets.

 

[Target362]

The benefits of cloud computing: you can update something on your iPhone in your left hand and it appears on your Tablet in your right hand...after traveling around the world twice from satellite to satellite.

thats true, but thats not just what cloud computing is about. (plus, you can do that already) The main point is the storage. I dont want to have some compney storing my information.

of course when apple does it, the whole world hows a hissy fit.