John Paczkowski

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That’s Apple’s New Data Center? Where’s the Giant Glass Cube?

February 22, 2010 at 2:01 pm PT

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When plans for it were first announced, Apple’s North Carolina data center was described as “as big as they come” and in more colloquial parlance, as “big-assed.” And that is truly the case, as this brief aerial video posted to YouTube demonstrates.

The facility, which is nearly five times the size of Apple’s giant data center in Newark, Calif., isn’t exactly pretty, but as far as efforts to house 500,000 square feet of data center space in a single building go, it’s pretty impressive. And it does have a bit of Area 51 about it, particularly since Apple (AAPL) hasn’t yet revealed its true purpose. That said, it’s most likely related to some infrastructure-intensive cloud-computing initiative.

Tagged with: Apple, Area 51, building, cloud, cloud computing, data center, digital, facility, Google, hardware, infrastructure, Internet, John Paczkowski, Newark, North Carolina, software, square feet, video, YouTube

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  • JohnDoey

    > some infrastructure-intensive cloud-computing initiative.

    I know we want there to be a secret new project for this data center, but the continuing expansion of iTunes Store and Mobile Me is all you need to explain this data center. Not just adding new users, but upgrading the quality of audio video, hosting disc-free remote Mac installers, providing iPad backup and restore so that users don't need a Mac/PC, offsite Time Machine, Internet Spotlight, and many more really obvious things.

  • Anonymous

    Do you see Apple outsource any support/development jobs to India and China?

  • http://blog.macb.net macbeach

    Does anybody know for sure if Apple runs their own (Apple hardware) servers for all their datacenter needs?

    I know there has been the Apple cluster supercomputer here and there, but how many companies are actually using Apple as their main DC infrastructure?

    With that question in mind I have to wonder why they don't just farm out iTunes and other hosting activities to some other company that does that sort of thing well.

  • Anonymous

    Short answer: $25 USD Billions on balance sheet
    Long answer: If anyone is fanatic about total control over end-to-end user experience is Apple. Now pushing to “cloud services”, they’re sticking to their long-held mantra.

  • http://chuck.goolsbee.org chuck goolsbee

    From what I gather, yes, they run their own hardware.

    As for farming it out, why contribute to another company's profits? There is huge strategic value to operating ones own datacenter facilities, provided you meet a certain scale. It makes lots of sense for SMB to install their Internet infrastructure in a leased facility, but for very large businesses it is far smarter to build and operate their own.

  • fscottt

    Can anyone see an search engine launch to go with iPad and compete heads up for the cloud and the net with google?

    The next v of iPad will be even thinner – it will all be an interface to the apple cloud where you store, search, buy, rent and live your digital life without all the hardware and software.
    When you do want that, you will use a big hulking mac desktop (49% market shaare owned by already apple) that will also be linked in.

    “The most important thing I have ever done..” yup, replace the computer as we now know it.

    Bye Bye IT.

  • Anonymous

    seriously, can we update the photo? don’t be so lazy.

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    There are certainly a lot of details like that to take into consideration.