New Evidence of Apple's Plans for a Second Data Center Building at NC Site

[TMay]

Nah, if you don't need the excess capacity immediately, why erect the second building? They'd be paying for something they're not using.

Even if they have 50 billion in cash, they still have an obligation to use their money wisely.

Construction costs are really low now. It's a good time to build if the space is in a future plan anyway.

 

[New-Muadib]

SkyNet!!!!

 

[Becordial]

That's awfully big for your typical MobileMe like service.

I suspect more and more that Apple is planning on bundling some major cloud based service with it's mobile devices. On a desktop, you have the luxury of large amounts of local storage, unlimited electricity (to power your 16 core rig) for computations, etc. On mobile devices theses things are limited. Apple could really be poised to raise the bar here.

I'm thinking it's going beyond the mobile devices. The new Air has a pretty small drive not much music and photos can be stored locally, so it needs to go on your network or to the cloud. The Air has enough space for an OS and some apps but with this and the showing of more and more iOS features in Lion I can't help but think they're getting ready for a lot more hosted applications, or maybe even a hosted OS in future. If Apple don't do it, Microsoft or Google is going to do it.

 

[NinjaHERO]

The double building looks pretty cool. Hopefully that brings lots of jobs to that area.

 

[BC2009]

Why build one when you can have two at twice the price. - S.R. Hadden

rofl..... i was going to post this. That was the first quote that came to my mind.

 

[grmatt]

I think the second building is the Time Capsule backup for the first building

/thread

 

[grmatt]

The double building looks pretty cool. Hopefully that brings lots of jobs to that area.

Or one Jobs.

 

[PBUser167]

If anyone knows where this facility is, they can pull it up on Google Earth and use the "Tape" tool set on "feet" to measure the length and width then multiply the two to get a general idea of the square feet of the building.
I would do it for everyone, but I don't know the location.

That requires the photos to be current enough to at least show the building footprint.

6081 Startown Rd, Maiden, NC

It is not there.

 

[BC2009]

They're calling it SETEC ASTRONOMY

Yes, Apple has "too many secrets".

 

[grmatt]

SkyNet!!!!

 

[HiRez]

With all the arial photos of this thing, can't someone use the size of the cars/trucks/parking spaces to do a rough calculation on the square footage? They should put a big Apple logo on top.

 

[Duncan-Idaho]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Are there any perpendicular (non-oblique view) aerial photos of the building or foundation? If so I can georeference the images in GIS software and provide precise sq. ft. calculations. Unfortunately I won't be able to do this until after work tonight. But if anybody can provide links to photos I'd be glad to do it.

 

[space1nvaders]

Redundancy

I wouldn't doubt it if they just use it for redundancy, but that's just a guess without any internal knowledge whatsoever. In the future our networks could be the target of terrorists. These better be "bomb shelters".

 

[sishaw]

And still no idea as to what all this is for right?

It is for a complete computer model of the entire world, every building and blade of grass, as Steve Jobs would like it to be.

 

[zerosomething]

County GIS system

Go to https://energov.catawbacountync.gov/cap/default.aspx then someone with an account look it up.

It's Parcel #: 362711760090 Without an account you can see the inspections completed. With an account you might be able to see more.

 

[Becordial]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Are there any perpendicular (non-oblique view) aerial photos of the building or foundation? If so I can georeference the images in GIS software and provide precise sq. ft. calculations. Unfortunately I won't be able to do this until after work tonight. But if anybody can provide links to photos I'd be glad to do it.

If we get the area in sq. ft can a data-facility technician work out how many rack space units and units of data it will hold?

 

[Sugar Grove]

to GroundLoop,
thats why we use ESCHELON

 

[HelveticaNeue]

Why build one when you can have two at twice the price. - S.R. Hadden

If it is just that one data centre ... seems like an awful waste of space.

 

[cvaldes]

Construction costs are really low now. It's a good time to build if the space is in a future plan anyway.

I doubt that construction costs will climb much over the next couple of years. My guess is that Apple has come to a similar conclusion.

 

[-FlyAuburn-]

SkyNet!!!!

I loled.

 

[ivladster]

Shouldn't they build them in two separate locations in case of a natural disaster or giant monster (e.g. Godzilla or Rodan) disrupting operations?

We've learned from the Umbrella Corporation that a building can do down 40 stories or more, so no one knows the underground network.

 

[griz]

Come on people ..."The data center is THIS big."

 

[shmeffrey]

Okay, my question is... why didn't they just construct a taller building with more floors and save some trees and space? Seems a bit of a waste to me...

Taller buildings cost more money to build per sq.ft. They are more difficult from a design standpoint and the time of construction is longer.

Obviously if they are planning on constructing a second building they want the first to be operational and uninterrupted by construction.

They would have architects and engineers figure out what their best design option would be for their needs.

 

[Full of Win]

This makes sense. I sad the following yesterday in a previous thread on this...

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/11294130/

What if this was their plan all along?

Make one center, get it up and going...then work on the next one while the first one is raking in the moola.

Get one up, use it at near capacity, and then build the second to meet future capacity.

 

[hugodrax]

By the time the buildings are complete it will be too late.