Apple to build second 'tactical datacenter' at Maiden, NC facility
Permit filings discovered on Wednesday reveal Apple is preparing to expand its existing 500,000-square-foot datacenter in Maiden, N.C. with a new, smaller "tactical datacenter" complete with office space, meeting area and breakroom.
According to a report by local publication The Hickory Daily Record, Apple's new tactical datacenter will be 14,246 square feet and measure 25 feet tall, slightly smaller than a similar ancillary structure built over one year ago.
The information comes from an erosion permit filed with the Catawba County planning office. Plans for the datacenter reportedly show centrally located "banks of computers" with 11 cooling units. Two additional air conditioners will take care of the office space and other work areas, while security is to be handled by a "man trap" type door.
The cost of the new project is unknown, but appears to be on a smaller scale than the original 21,030-square-foot tactical datacenter, which was priced at $1.8 million. That build required 22 A/C units, five fans, 14 humidifiers, six electrical unit heaters and one duct with electric louvers.
Apple's Maiden datacenter plays a vital role in the company's backend infrastructure and contains servers for various iCloud and iTunes services. The site is powered by a large 5-megawatt biogas fuel cell installation and the largest privately owned solar array in the country.
According to a report by local publication The Hickory Daily Record, Apple's new tactical datacenter will be 14,246 square feet and measure 25 feet tall, slightly smaller than a similar ancillary structure built over one year ago.
The information comes from an erosion permit filed with the Catawba County planning office. Plans for the datacenter reportedly show centrally located "banks of computers" with 11 cooling units. Two additional air conditioners will take care of the office space and other work areas, while security is to be handled by a "man trap" type door.
The cost of the new project is unknown, but appears to be on a smaller scale than the original 21,030-square-foot tactical datacenter, which was priced at $1.8 million. That build required 22 A/C units, five fans, 14 humidifiers, six electrical unit heaters and one duct with electric louvers.
Apple's Maiden datacenter plays a vital role in the company's backend infrastructure and contains servers for various iCloud and iTunes services. The site is powered by a large 5-megawatt biogas fuel cell installation and the largest privately owned solar array in the country.
Comments
That doesn't sound too pleasant XP
Purely subjective on my part but I can read about FB, Google or Amazon creating new server farms I can get excited but when I read about Apple doing it I think to myself 'meh.' When we originally got word they were building them out I was excited about it but I think I expected something obvious and direct that would show these high-tech data centers in action.
Tactical data centers are cool. I think they are what we used to call disaster recovery centers. That is why they have man traps and meeting rooms so a team can come in and do forensics and recovery in case of an attack or catastrophe.
@Emes
The man trap is a small transitional space between the foyer and the actual data center. It is usually only large enough for one person. This helps prevent piggybacking when someone passes their hand print scan and card swipe, an unauthorized partner cannot slip through before the door closes. Some mantraps are very elaborate in terms of weigh ins and glass observation from the security guards - sort of like the TSA at the airport.
Two additional air conditioners will take care of the office space and other work areas, while security is to be handled by a "man trap" type door.
@Emes
The man trap is a small transitional space between the foyer and the actual data center. It is usually only large enough for one person. This helps prevent piggybacking when someone passes their hand print scan and card swipe, an unauthorized partner cannot slip through before the door closes. Some mantraps are very elaborate in terms of weigh ins and glass observation from the security guards - sort of like the TSA at the airport.
I was already aware of that, but thank you anyways
Just what exactly has Apple done with all these DataCenter? Purely in terms of innovation or even achievement Apple gets Zero marks for its backend. And the scale Apple are handling now and going into future, they seriously need to get their hands on server hardware and software to ensure things working properly.
According to various dated statistics:
Tens of Billions of Notifications per day
Billions iMessages per day
Hundreds of Millions of emails per day
Tens of Millions of Apple Maps users
Tens of Millions of Apple Siri users
etc.
etc.
etc.
Apple focuses on user experience, not the underlying technology, as the value proposition. Apple data centers are based on competitor's technologies so Apple has no incentive to promote the underlying technology.
Quiet Brilliance. Quite reminiscent of the Apple social network strategy and the mobile payment strategy.
I never was expecting Apple to show the inner workings of their datacenters. Cool to see pictures of it, also during Steve's keynote when he 'gave us' iCloud, but normally Apple hides all the backend stuff.
If you meant that you wanted to get excited about Apple getting 'cloud stuff right' I'd agree with you, though my geographical location could be the cause of my poor upload speed experience. The continuous duplicates in the Notes app are starting to annoy me and the hit or miss syncing of Aperture Photo streams have become irritating.
Still, in no way compares these negatives to the vast amount of 'cloud stuff' they are getting right. Anyone what their iTunes server uptime is?
I think I would have been happy with a doubling of iCloud storage from 5GB to 10GB so I didn't have to use a different iCloud account for each iDevice.
Don't understand their stinginess myself either. It's not like they're using expensive NAND in their DC's.
And their paid upgrade plans are pricy:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5879
[IMG ALT=""]http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/38670/width/350/height/700[/IMG]
It would probably work as a security feature but you might have some legal issues to work with...
The iCloud storage thing has been an issue with me for some time. IMO, it would make far, far more sense for Apple to apportion an amount of online storage equal to the capacity of the device. When a person shells out for a 64GB iPad, not just a 16GB, it only makes sense to me that they'd have an iCloud account capable of backing up the entire iOS device.
I'm all for getting capacity based on the number of devices one has purchased but I don't know how the logistics would work.
Are you referring to 'what happens when you buy five devices, sell two and then buy two more with lower capacities?'...that kind of thing?
Even just buy and sell devices in general. Let's say they give you the exact same amount of data per device, regardless of capacity.
How do they move the data from one user to another when you sell it?
Do they offer a time frame/window to purchase a new device in case you are near your maximum?
What aspect of the device is it tied to? Find my iPhone seems to be the only viable option since you can lock a device to only one iCloud account that way.
I'm all for getting capacity based on the number of devices one has purchased but I don't know how the logistics would work.
Authorize additional storage based on the device identifiers linked to your Apple ID?
Say you wiped the device remotely because you misplaced it (and then found it the next day behind the bed) what happened to the additional storage?
Say you wiped the device remotely because you misplaced it (and then found it the next day behind the bed) what happened to the additional storage?
Why would wiping the device affect Apple's internal records? Apple should still know that the device is still registered to your account. The only reason you would lose access to the additional storage is if you sell the device and unlink it from your account so that someone else can register the device.
Maybe restrict the storage space to the original purchaser when the device is bought directly from Apple to incentivize direct sales, then low or no storage options for private resales? In other words, once you paid Apple, you bought the storage...in fact you could have the option of selling the device with or without the associated online storage space! Could create an entire new supply and demand market for online storage.