‘Cloud computing’ likely to be focus of Apple’s $1B N.C. data center

Updated Aug. 19, 2009 at 7:53 a.m.

‘Cloud computing’ likely to be focus of Apple’s $1B N.C. data center

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RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – Apple’s new $1 billion data center that is to be built in western North Carolina reportedly will be a mammoth, 500,000-square-foot structure with a focus on ‘cloud computing.”

So says Rich Miller, editor of Data Center Knowledge, a magazine focused on the data hosting market.

In June, North Carolina’s General Assembly passed legislation awarding generous tax incentives if Apple chose to build its East Coast data center in North Carolina. However, Apple has been very tight lipped about some details of the project.

“Apple is planning about 500,000 square feet of data center space in a single building,” Miller told the web site Cult of Mac. “That would place it among the largest data centers in the world … This would qualify as a big-a…data center.”

Miller said the size of the facility implies that it would be for much more than supporting “apps,” or applications, for Apple devices. He therefore believes the data center would be built to host servers to provide cloud computing capacity.

Apple’s existing data center in California covers 109,000 square feet, according to Miller.

The new center will be built in Maiden, N.C. on a 255-acre site.

Google, by the way, built a $600 million data center some 25 miles away in Lenoir.

The Apple facility is expected to employ at least 50 people, and it is expected to contract locally for services like server maintenance and repair, building and ventilation system maintenance, landscaping and security. Officials said spending on those services could range from $5 million to $6 million annually and create up to 250 jobs.

The state Department of Commerce projects that a data center investment of $1 billion would create more than 3,000 jobs in the regional economy, including hundreds of jobs related to construction and others created as a result of economic growth.

State tax breaks could be worth about $46 million in the next decade. Apple could, however, save more than $300 million on its corporate taxes if the server farm is in place for 30 years, based on the memo. Apple also will receive several million dollars in local incentives.

Tags: Apple, Hot Off the Wire

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