Apple pouring 1.7 billion euros into new data centers in Ireland and Denmark

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 37
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    Apple's press release on this is at:

    http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2015/02/23Apple-to-Invest-1-7-Billion-in-New-European-Data-Centres.html

    It includes a few sentences on the company's contributions to Europe's economy.

    Also, one gets the impression that Apple is building out their data network very deliberately, to give them time to build on previous environmental solutions, and take advantage of what others are doing in the field, such as the air-cooling designs in Ireland. I wonder how novel it is that they are feeding waste heat into the home heating infrastructure in Viborg.

    Hotheads who want it all done at once take note: they're learning as they go, and it gets better with each iteration.
  • Reply 22 of 37
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member
    There really is no such thing as plenty of data capacity. The cloud storage worldwide is growing exponentially. This might answer some of the icloud critics.
  • Reply 23 of 37
    blastdoor wrote: »

    What makes you think that they have "plenty" of data center capacity? 

    And why wouldn't they want to have data centers close to the populations served? 

    I'm surprised it's taken this long to open large data centers in Europe. 

    Have you experienced issues with getting content from Apple? I regularly stream movies I've bought, or purchased music and Apps and I very rarely experience a slowdown. Only time I can honestly say things get slow is when a new version of iOS comes out and millions of people are all trying to get it at once.

    Meanwhile, I regularly experience pauses or slowdowns from other online services (like Youtube). I just don't see Apple doubling their capacity to fix a non-existent issue with delivery.

    And there's not much of an advantage to having data centres near the population when most of the items you're getting are large, single files (like Apps). However, if you were going to do something more intense (like streaming) then localized servers make much more sense. This is why Netflix (for example) locates servers within many cable company facilities to distribute content and improve delivery.
  • Reply 24 of 37
    Assuming that the money Apple is hoarding overseas from the IRS is in dollars and with the dollar up in comparison to the Euro, this is excellent timing.

    By the way, if you've long planned to 'do Europe,' now is an excellent time. Fuel costs are down, making travel cheaper. And the dollar is up, making expenses lower.

    Ah, but given how many others will also figure that out, you might want to make your trip off-season, either just before or just after the regular tourist season. I saw the UK in September when the weather was still nice and the people I met told me that I'd come at a good time. A few weeks earlier and everything was crowded and lines were long.

    ----

    Other posters are right. Given the heat that data centers generate, higher latitudes (Ireland and Denmark) can cut down on cooling costs. Some even consider Iceland a good option. It's not only quite chilly there, abundant geo-thermal power is available.

    Almost any source makes more sense that Apple current and silly obsession with costly and environmentally destructive solar. The thrift of using waste heat for other purposes is also easier in colder climates than in hot California. In California waste air at 110 F is worthless. In a northern climate it could be used to warm buildings.
  • Reply 25 of 37
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Benjamin Frost View Post



    This is welcome news.



    It would have been good if they'd built them ten years ago, but better late than never.

     

    According to you, Apple should have done every single thing "ten years ago". It's amazing the company is still afloat, after being 10 yrs late to the game on everything. Sorry, why are they "late"? According to whom? Apple has been building data center pretty non-stop over the past few years. Or are you saying 10 years ago, years before the first iPhone was released, they should have spent tens of billions building data centers for capacity they didn't need, while their bank account and revenue was not a fraction of what it is now, while having no clue that their data serving needs would increase so exponentially? Was Steve Jobs an idiot for not blowing all of Apple's bank account randomly on data centers? There's no evidence it would have benefitted Apple to do so then, instead of now, when obviously the technology is so much better. 

     

    Your posts never make any sense. 

  • Reply 26 of 37
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member
    Have you experienced issues with getting content from Apple?

    I've never had any problems with streaming but iTunes doesn't come close to maxing out my 80mbit connection when downloading. It's quite frustrating at times. Services like Steam absolutely fly in comparison.
  • Reply 27 of 37
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member
    The streaming is via the CDNs anyway.

    These data stores are for local user content. Latency isn't a huge issue but everything helps.
  • Reply 28 of 37
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member
    inkling wrote: »
    Assuming that the money Apple is hoarding overseas from the IRS is in dollars and with the dollar up in comparison to the Euro, this is excellent timing.

    By the way, if you've long planned to 'do Europe,' now is an excellent time. Fuel costs are down, making travel cheaper. And the dollar is up, making expenses lower.

    Ah, but given how many others will also figure that out, you might want to make your trip off-season, either just before or just after the regular tourist season. I saw the UK in September when the weather was still nice and the people I met told me that I'd come at a good time. A few weeks earlier and everything was crowded and lines were long.

    ----

    Other posters are right. Given the heat that data centers generate, higher latitudes (Ireland and Denmark) can cut down on cooling costs. Some even consider Iceland a good option. It's not only quite chilly there, abundant geo-thermal power is available.

    Almost any source makes more sense that Apple current and silly obsession with costly and environmentally destructive solar. The thrift of using waste heat for other purposes is also easier in colder climates than in hot California. In California waste air at 110 F is worthless. In a northern climate it could be used to warm buildings.

    Why is solar so wasteful?

    You are right about September. May is even better and the days somewhat longer. Avoid the school holidays.

    August is a busy. Many european countries force close offices and companies in early August. It's the high season of high seasons.
  • Reply 29 of 37
    pdq2pdq2 Posts: 270member

    This story makes a very telling contrast to when Microsoft bought Nokia. At the time they announced the $7.2 billion acquisition, they promised that the deal would include spending $250 million on a new Microsoft datacenter in Finland (to soften the blow of the loss of jobs, I suppose).

     

    A year and a half later, there's no sign of it. And Microsoft is now going mealy-mouthed, saying "no, we meant we would invest in an existing Finnish datacenter", which isn't fooling anyone:

     

    http://www.zdnet.com/article/after-the-nokia-deal-microsoft-promised-a-250m-datacenter-for-finland-so-where-is-it/

     

    Honestly, after the number of folks Microsoft has hosed over the years, I'm just surprised the suckers keep falling for it.

  • Reply 30 of 37
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by pdq2 View Post

     

    This story makes a very telling contrast to when Microsoft bought Nokia. At the time they announced the $7.2 billion acquisition, they promised that the deal would include spending $250 million on a new Microsoft datacenter in Finland (to soften the blow of the loss of jobs, I suppose).

     

    A year and a half later, there's no sign of it. And Microsoft is now going mealy-mouthed, saying "no, we meant we would invest in an existing Finnish datacenter", which isn't fooling anyone:

     

    http://www.zdnet.com/article/after-the-nokia-deal-microsoft-promised-a-250m-datacenter-for-finland-so-where-is-it/

     

    Honestly, after the number of folks Microsoft has hosed over the years, I'm just surprised the suckers keep falling for it.




    To be fair, Microsoft has managed to hose themselves pretty well to boot.

  • Reply 31 of 37
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by asdasd View Post





    Why is solar so wasteful?



    You are right about September. May is even better and the days somewhat longer. Avoid the school holidays.



    August is a busy. Many european countries force close offices and companies in early August. It's the high season of high seasons.



    Some years ago it was the case that it took more energy to produce a solar cell than it could ever produce over it's expected life.  Ideas like that tend to stick around for a while like pumping the accelerator pedal on a car before starting it. Modern cells have passed that point.

     

    At least I am guessing that is why some people might consider them wasteful.

  • Reply 32 of 37

    As a side note, AAPL hit a high of $133 today. Absolutely mindblowing!

  • Reply 33 of 37
    pdq2pdq2 Posts: 270member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post

     

    As a side note, AAPL hit a high of $133 today. Absolutely mindblowing!


     

    Closed at its high for the day (at +2.71%), in an otherwise down-to-flat market.

     

    There's Apple; then there's the rest of Wall Street.

  • Reply 34 of 37
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by pdq2 View Post

     

     

    Closed at its high for the day (at +2.71%), in an otherwise down-to-flat market.

     

    There's Apple; then there's the rest of Wall Street.




    You said it. Just another amazing day for AAPL.

  • Reply 35 of 37
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cnocbui View Post

     



    Some years ago it was the case that it took more energy to produce a solar cell than it could ever produce over it's expected life.  Ideas like that tend to stick around for a while like pumping the accelerator pedal on a car before starting it. Modern cells have passed that point.

     

    At least I am guessing that is why some people might consider them wasteful.




    There used to be a "tipping point" for solar that the industry was shooting toward for many years. I believe that number had been broken some years ago, but there are still so many environmental factors that prevent the use of solar (such as unfavorable weather patterns, lack of advanced battery storage) that the cost per watt in many cases is not the only limiting factor. I'm very interested to see what Elon Musk soon unveils for his home-scale battery system.

  • Reply 36 of 37
    trydtryd Posts: 143member

    It may be that Apple has to have data centers inside EU to allow officials in EU countries to use iCloud. In Norway it is forbidden for any official documents to be stored on servers outside Norway. There may be similar rules within EU.

     

    And BTW: They say that these data centers will run on hydroelectric power from Norway. We export a lot of it - this power may actually be cheaper in Denmark than in Norway because the danes have lower taxes on electricity than Norway.

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