Apple files permit to build second data center cluster in Reno

AppleInsider

Apple is looking to build out its data center operations in Reno, Nev., with a new project calling for an expansion of existing infrastructure that will bring the company's Reno Technology Park plot to near capacity.

According to documents filed with Washoe County, Apple's forthcoming expansion, dubbed "Project Huckleberry," will be similar to its existing Reno campus, with initial construction plans calling for a central building, "several" data center clusters and a support structure, reports the Reno Gazette-Journal.

"It's a whole different set of buildings but it looks like it is going to be essentially the same design as Project Mills, only turned perpendicularly to the east," said Trevor Lloyd, senior planner for Washoe County Planning and Development's Community Services. Project Mills is Apple's original data center site serving iTunes, App Store and iCloud services.

There is constant work being done at Apple's Reno Technology Park site, a 345-acre plot of land 15 minutes east of downtown Reno. Before the most recent Project Huckleberry filing, plans for Apple's data center allotted for 412,000 square feet of space divided between up to 14 buildings, Lloyd said. The company recently submitted a permit for a substation, suggesting further growth is in the works.

As reported by AppleInsider, Apple doubled the size of its Reno data center with a second server structure last March.

As for Project Huckleberry, Lloyd expects Apple's permit to be granted by the end of January.

radarthekat

Apple needs this new data center for when it streams worldwide it's last earnings report, informing the world that it sold exactly zero iPhones in a quarter and is therefore shutting down the entire company.  I think it'll be the April report, if analysts are to be believed, so they better hurry up construction.  /s

aaronj

radarthekat said:

Apple needs this new data center for when it streams worldwide it's last earnings report, informing the world that it sold exactly zero iPhones in a quarter and is therefore shutting down the entire company.  I think it'll be the April report, if analysts are to be believed, so they better hurry up construction.  /s

Nice.  

It may be possible that they sold a negative number of iPhones, even!

ksec

DataCenter expansion is too slow.  I think there is some internal discussion and fight as to Whether Apple should go All in on Cloud and Data center. As you can tell by some of their moves, hesitation and struggle. China DC partnership never went into fruit. Ireland DC was more of a political play, it is not even the size you could expect if it was serving the whole of Europe. Apple continue in using and even expanding the use of Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure. Their CDN has been going back to Akamai.  

I think, it is in Apple's DNA not to go back into owning these things, like its manufacturing arm. They want to outsource it. And they seems to continue to wait for the market downturn and price competition to give them the advantage.

canukstorm

ksec said:

DataCenter expansion is too slow.  I think there is some internal discussion and fight as to Whether Apple should go All in on Cloud and Data center. As you can tell by some of their moves, hesitation and struggle. China DC partnership never went into fruit. Ireland DC was more of a political play, it is not even the size you could expect if it was serving the whole of Europe. Apple continue in using and even expanding the use of Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure. Their CDN has been going back to Akamai.  

I think, it is in Apple's DNA not to go back into owning these things, like its manufacturing arm. They want to outsource it. And they seems to continue to wait for the market downturn and price competition to give them the advantage.

Then how do you explain this:

http://9to5mac.com/2015/09/15/apple-new-cloud-platform-open-source/

and the fact that they recently opened a Seattle office dedicated to their Cloud team?

oirudleahcim

I never really looked at pictures of Apple's data centers until this. I know this might be a fairly remote physical plant, but the apparent lack of any kind of physical hardening leaves me wondering if Apple considers itself an uninteresting target for anyone who might be capable of, say, a bomb or other kind of attack? Imagine the disruption if a number of their data centers were simultaneously attacked and either physically destroyed or disabled. The physical security of this plant looks pretty flimsy; isolation only counts for so much. Who would they call in if attacked? Local law enforcement? If their (and their customers' data) is so important, it seems to me that a bit of hardening of physical structures would be not only a high priority, but a necessity. These aren't nice times, and one would think Apple would take physical security of their operations sites a bit more seriously.

ksec

canukstorm said:

ksec said:

DataCenter expansion is too slow.  I think there is some internal discussion and fight as to Whether Apple should go All in on Cloud and Data center. As you can tell by some of their moves, hesitation and struggle. China DC partnership never went into fruit. Ireland DC was more of a political play, it is not even the size you could expect if it was serving the whole of Europe. Apple continue in using and even expanding the use of Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure. Their CDN has been going back to Akamai.  

I think, it is in Apple's DNA not to go back into owning these things, like its manufacturing arm. They want to outsource it. And they seems to continue to wait for the market downturn and price competition to give them the advantage.

Then how do you explain this:

http://9to5mac.com/2015/09/15/apple-new-cloud-platform-open-source/

and the fact that they recently opened a Seattle office dedicated to their Cloud team?

The Cloud Platform is about Mesos, Which was first announced on Mesosphere. It was one of the biggest announcement that Apple is using it. Basically allow ALL Apple services to build on top of the same SOFTWARE platform. You can have this running on Microsoft , or AWS. This is a software layer that should have had for a long time. 
So it is more of a catch up to Google. 

The Seattle office is about Internet Services, i.e iTunes, and iCloud Software. Apple is, strangely enough having a hard time to attract enough talent on this front. Compared to most other Internet based Company.  

Both of this, the internet services software for iCloud, iTunes, and Apple Music, Siri etc will run on Apple's Mesos, which will happily run on, or schedule to run on Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, or even Google Cloud. So both of this point has nothing to do with Apple's Datacenter expansion.

ksec

oirudleahcim said:

I never really looked at pictures of Apple's data centers until this. I know this might be a fairly remote physical plant, but the apparent lack of any kind of physical hardening leaves me wondering if Apple considers itself an uninteresting target for anyone who might be capable of, say, a bomb or other kind of attack? Imagine the disruption if a number of their data centers were simultaneously attacked and either physically destroyed or disabled. The physical security of this plant looks pretty flimsy; isolation only counts for so much. Who would they call in if attacked? Local law enforcement? If their (and their customers' data) is so important, it seems to me that a bit of hardening of physical structures would be not only a high priority, but a necessity. These aren't nice times, and one would think Apple would take physical security of their operations sites a bit more seriously.

Interesting thoughts. But isn't it the same could happen with Apple HQ?

But the way, there are many many more DC around the Apple's DC radius, from Microsoft, Verizon, etc within the same area. So i guess they are all in the same boat should something like this happen.