As Carolina data center debut looms, Apple expanding in Silicon Valley too
Apple is said to be quickly building another new data center in Silicon Valley in addition to the massive North Carolina facility set to open any day now, ahead of the anticipated "iCloud" service.
Apple's new California server space will be housed in a third-party facility, and will be smaller than the massive Maiden, N.C., facility, Data Center Knowledge reported Wednesday. Instead, Apple's new expansion, expected to go online later this year, will be just 11,000 square feet devoted to data center space, compared to the 184,000 square feet in North Carolina.
The seven-year lease will get Apple 2.28 megawatts of critical power load in the facility being built in Santa Clara, Calif., by DuPont Fabros Technology. The building is scheduled to open sometime between July and September of this year.
DuPont Fabros has not officially confirmed that Apple is the tenant of the new facility, only referring to its partnership with a Fortune 50 company. However, industry sources have reportedly confirmed that Apple is indeed set to control the 11,000 square feet.
The new lease is noteworthy because Data Center Knowledge believes it to be Apple's first investment in a "wholesale data center," where tenants lease a dedicated, fully-built data center space.
"This approach is attractive for companies that need to deploy additional data center space quickly, as wholesale space can be delivered more rapidly than building a new data center," the report said.
Apple's rush to add more capacity could be tied to a potential imminent launch of its new cloud-based music streaming service. While most of the attention on the so-called "iCloud" product has focused on music, AppleInsider has been told that the product will also offer wireless syncing of bookmarks, e-mail, contacts, and calendar events, much like the company's existing MobileMe service.
Apple's other $1 billion server farm in North Carolina has been in the works for some time now, as Apple first selected the site in mid 2009. Apple originally expected to open the facility by the end of 2010, but said at its annual investors meeting this year that the facility will go online this spring.
Apple executives also confirmed that the Maiden, N.C., facility, with 500,000 total square feet of space, will support iTunes and MobileMe. The anticipated "iCloud" product is expected to be a successor to MobileMe and could be largely driven by Apple's data centers set to begin operation in the coming months.
Apple's new California server space will be housed in a third-party facility, and will be smaller than the massive Maiden, N.C., facility, Data Center Knowledge reported Wednesday. Instead, Apple's new expansion, expected to go online later this year, will be just 11,000 square feet devoted to data center space, compared to the 184,000 square feet in North Carolina.
The seven-year lease will get Apple 2.28 megawatts of critical power load in the facility being built in Santa Clara, Calif., by DuPont Fabros Technology. The building is scheduled to open sometime between July and September of this year.
DuPont Fabros has not officially confirmed that Apple is the tenant of the new facility, only referring to its partnership with a Fortune 50 company. However, industry sources have reportedly confirmed that Apple is indeed set to control the 11,000 square feet.
The new lease is noteworthy because Data Center Knowledge believes it to be Apple's first investment in a "wholesale data center," where tenants lease a dedicated, fully-built data center space.
"This approach is attractive for companies that need to deploy additional data center space quickly, as wholesale space can be delivered more rapidly than building a new data center," the report said.
Apple's rush to add more capacity could be tied to a potential imminent launch of its new cloud-based music streaming service. While most of the attention on the so-called "iCloud" product has focused on music, AppleInsider has been told that the product will also offer wireless syncing of bookmarks, e-mail, contacts, and calendar events, much like the company's existing MobileMe service.
Apple's other $1 billion server farm in North Carolina has been in the works for some time now, as Apple first selected the site in mid 2009. Apple originally expected to open the facility by the end of 2010, but said at its annual investors meeting this year that the facility will go online this spring.
Apple executives also confirmed that the Maiden, N.C., facility, with 500,000 total square feet of space, will support iTunes and MobileMe. The anticipated "iCloud" product is expected to be a successor to MobileMe and could be largely driven by Apple's data centers set to begin operation in the coming months.
Comments
... While most of the attention o the so-called "iCloud" product has focused on music, AppleInsider has been told that the product will also offer wireless syncing of bookmarks, e-mail, contacts, and calendar events, much like the company's existing MobileMe service....
I think it's pretty clear what iCloud will focus on when you look at the image they've been using for the site this week.
It'a a cloud spreading animated pixie dust (magical!), surrounded by outlines of all the iOS devices.
I think it's pretty clear what iCloud will focus on when you look at the image they've been using for the site this week.
It'a a cloud spreading animated pixie dust (magical!), surrounded by outlines of all the iOS devices.
It?s been like that for quite a while.
1. Apps sync across all devices. Special mobile+mac bundle apps will be introduced. They will share data in the cloud. For instance, a financial app would share data across the desktop and mobile version.
2. Your home folder will be synced up to the cloud. All of your media and documents will be synced across all devices. Potentially an overhaul of how we manage our files. Backup problems disappear.
3. All this content will be available from the Apple TV.
4. Apple will likely ditch MobileMe as a failure, although they will probably keep the @me.com domain.
5. Connecting a new Mac will download all of your content. Apple is working on advanced streaming protocols to assist with viewing the media.
6. We've seen the UI tweaks and new features of Lion, but none of this cloud stuff. It would explain why the Lion update so far seems boring.
I think Apple is planning on Lion being the first cloud OS done right. Here are my predictions:
1. Apps sync across all devices. Special mobile+mac bundle apps will be introduced. They will share data in the cloud. For instance, a financial app would share data across the desktop and mobile version.
That would be nice
2. Your home folder will be synced up to the cloud. All of your media and documents will be synced across all devices. Potentially an overhaul of how we manage our files. Backup problems disappear.
Back-up problems disappear? I think that would be rather too optimistic. All you media synced across all devices would be a nightmare. Selected media, perhaps. What I have on my Macs wont fit on a IOS device.
3. All this content will be available from the Apple TV.
Your media, yes. Not the rest, please.
4. Apple will likely ditch MobileMe as a failure, although they will probably keep the @me.com domain.
Sure, though I don't regard it as a failure. What did it fail to do?
5. Connecting a new Mac will download all of your content. Apple is working on advanced streaming protocols to assist with viewing the media.
I think you need to make a distinction between Macs and IOS devices. For me that would mean - connect a new Mac and wait a week...
6. We've seen the UI tweaks and new features of Lion, but none of this cloud stuff. It would explain why the Lion update so far seems boring.
Lion update seem boring to you? I disagree. I know a lot of people hate the gray but functionality wise it looks amazing imo
I think it's pretty clear what iCloud will focus on when you look at the image they've been using for the site this week.
It'a a cloud spreading animated pixie dust (magical!), surrounded by outlines of all the iOS devices.
Mine looks nothing like that. Looks like the 'old' version
I think Apple is planning on Lion being the first cloud OS done right. Here are my predictions:
1. Apps sync across all devices. Special mobile+mac bundle apps will be introduced. They will share data in the cloud. For instance, a financial app would share data across the desktop and mobile version.
You picked the very last thing I would want sync'd in the cloud. FFS, your financial data isn't something to trust to 3rd parties any more than you absolutely have to.
2. Your home folder will be synced up to the cloud. All of your media and documents will be synced across all devices. Potentially an overhaul of how we manage our files. Backup problems disappear.
Zero interest to me. I have only one thought about OS-cloud integration:
IT HAD BETTER DAMN WELL BE OPTIONAL!! And not made critical for "normal" use, or cumbersome to disable 100% from a single setting.
Mine looks nothing like that. Looks like the 'old' version
It?s like that if you are either signing in with a non MobileMe email address, or haven?t signed in before. It?s been like that since the last update several months ago.
It?s like that if you are either signing in with a non MobileMe email address, or haven?t signed in before. It?s been like that since the last update several months ago.
Signing in with a non mm email? I must be missing something. I often sign in but have never seen the 'new' look.
isn't 11,000 sqft really small for a datacenter? that's like 4 mid-size houses. If you include space for administration, cooling and power systems, etc it seems very small.
50 PETA BYTE server's could fit in their maybe
9
I wouldn't consider me.com a 'failure' as someone said, but it's still very limited, slow (at least iDisk is slow), disk storage (basic plan) is very limited, the new iCal is good but it was hard setup (all kinds of bugs, required deleting the account in all my devices running different versions of OS X to start clean from backup (and with superb help from Apple rep over chat). Aside from all those little problems... I still prefer me.com than other cloud services out there--because i get much more than just file storage in the cloud.
isn't 11,000 sqft really small for a datacenter? that's like 4 mid-size houses. If you include space for administration, cooling and power systems, etc it seems very small.
11,000sqft is 4 houses? My guess, you don't live in the Bay Area!
isn't 11,000 sqft really small for a datacenter? that's like 4 mid-size houses. If you include space for administration, cooling and power systems, etc it seems very small.
2750 square ft per house is not small, regardless of where you're from and I've lived on both coasts, in the Bay Area and back in the Pacific Northwest where space is not limited.
isn't 11,000 sqft really small for a datacenter? that's like 4 mid-size houses. If you include space for administration, cooling and power systems, etc it seems very small.
If too much data is put in the Cloud some of it will leak into a Black Hole out there in space.
The 11,000 Sq Ft will just catch the leakage from N.C. cloud. Look what happened to Windows Vista, most of the OS ended up in a Black Hole.
Sure, though I don't regard it as a failure. What did it fail to do?
Mobile Me failed to get any traction in the marketplace.
As of now, I'm not seeing where this iCloud will be any different. Even if the rumor that they're giving away the service for free is true, I'm not seeing any features that would have me use iCloud.
And if it's not 100% optional and easy to turn completely off, I'm seeing plenty of features that would make me switch back to Windows.
Selected media, perhaps. What I have on my Macs wont fit on a IOS device.
Which is why you need streaming. Frequently accessed media lives on the device. The rest is in the cloud. If implemented correctly it should all be transparent to the user.
Which is why you need streaming. Frequently accessed media lives on the device. The rest is in the cloud. If implemented correctly it should all be transparent to the user.
QFT.
On devices with large amounts of memory everything can be synced (Ã* la Live Mesh, Dropbox or Sugarsync) but on limited memory devices more intelligent syncing needs to be employed and (exactly as you said) if this is implemented correctly it should all be transparent to the user.
I actually think Google Music is a great example of how sync should be enabled for devices with limited storage.
I'm not seeing any features that would have me use iCloud.
What features have you see of iCloud? I haven’t seen anything at all. Actually... I haven't even seen confirmation that iCloud even exists!
I want to be able to send in all my DVD movies and have them give me access to an iCloud version instead that can be streamed anytime I want.
Sounds like you want UltraViolet to take off