Where Apple’s ‘Secret Cloud’ Will Live

TechCrunch has a post this morning from digital music veteran Michael Robertson on Apple’s “Secret Cloud Strategy” and the importance of the software technology that it acquired from Lala.  “An upcoming major revision of iTunes will copy each user’s catalog to the net making it available from any browser or net connected ipod/touch/tablet,” Robertson writes, adding that more than 100 million iTunes users will be able to upload their catalogs to the net with a simple “An upgrade is available…” notification dialog box.

Software is dandy. But as we’ve previously noted, that kind of storage requires a ginormous data center – which Apple is already busy building in Maiden, North Carolina. For those just joining this story, here’s a summary of our reporting on Apple’s move into the clouds.

• Is an iTunes “Reboot” Driving the iDataCenter Project?
• The iDataCenter and the Cloud
• Maiden iDataCenter Will be 500,000 Square Feet
• It’s Official: Apple Data Center to North Carolina
• The Apple-Google Data Center Corridor
• Apple iDataCenter set for Maiden
• Apple Moving Quickly on NC Project

Will Apple have anything to say about its cloud computing ambitions in its hotly-anticipated product announcement Jan. 27 in San Francisco? Who knows. Speculation is already out of control, with most of the focus on the expected rollout of a tablet computer. But Apple’s plans for its huge new data center won’t remain secret forever.

Cloud background from SoraZG via Flickr.

Is iTunes ‘Reboot’ Driving iDataCenter Project?

What would it mean if Apple wanted to take all the songs in all the iTunes libraries sitting on all the hard drives of its users and host them in the cloud? It would probably require Apple to build an enormous data center to house the operation. There are widespread reports that Apple is contemplating such a shift.

As it happens, Apple is also building a major new data center in Maiden, North Carolina that will span 500,000 square feet. The enormity of the new facility - which will be nearly five times the size of the company’s 109,000 square foot Newark, Calif. data center – has raised questions about Apple’s ambitions. Why would it need all that data center space?

A Shift to the Cloud?
I discussed this question in an August interview with Leander Kahney at the Cult of Mac blog. A recap: The most interesting question is whether Apple needs a much larger facility to support growth in its existing services, or is scaling up capacity for future offerings.  One of the leading theories about the size of the NC project is that Apple is planning future cloud computing services that will require lots of data center storage.

This fits neatly with Apple’s purchase last week of the streaming music service LaLa. The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is planning to “reboot” its iTunes service as a browser-based service that would allow users to stream their music from anywhere.

The iDataCenter and the Cloud

Some of our recent reporting on Apple’s $1 billion data center in North Carolina is being discussed around the web this week, prompted by an piece by Leander Kahney at The Cult of Mac that examines the likelihood that the new facility will power cloud computing applications. There’s additional discussion at Wired, Fast Company, Mac News Network and Apple Insider. Here are some links reviewing our coverage of the iDataCenter here at Data Center Knowledge:

• It’s Official: Apple Data Center to North Carolina
• The Apple-Google Data Center Corridor
• Maiden iDataCenter Will be 500,000 Square Feet
• Apple iDataCenter set for Maiden
• Apple Moving Quickly on NC Project

Apple Hires eBay Data Center Executive

Apple has hired a key data center executive from eBay to oversee the expansion of its data center operations, reports Dave Ohara over at the Green Data Center blog. Olivier Sanche will join Apple as Director of Global Data Center Operations, and will presumably oversee the operations of Apple’s new $1 billion data center in North Carolina. eBay has built a number of large (200,000 SF plus) data centers in the western United States, so Sanche has experience with super-sized facilities.

“There is no other person I can think of who could better prepare Apple for Greening the Data Center,” Dave writes. “Olivier is one of the few data center managers who uses a Mac, and he craves the moment he can drop the blackberry and switch to the iPhone.”

The move continues this year’s series of “musical chairs” moves in which leading data center executives have moved back and forth among the industry’s leading players. Earlier this year Michael Manos moved from Microsoft to Digital Realty Trust, Kevin Timmons and Dayne Sampson shifted from Yahoo to Microsoft, and now Canche has jumped from eBay to Apple.

Apple Planning $1 Billion iDataCenter

An aerial view of the Apple data center in Newark, Calif. The company is said to be planning to add a major East Coast data center (Source: Google Maps).

Apple is planning a major East Coast data center to boost the capacity of its online operations, and may invest as much as $1 billion in building and operating the huge server farm. The company is considering locations in North Carolina, where officials are rushing to pass enhanced tax breaks to woo Apple to their state rather than neighboring Virginia, which just passed its own incentives for data center projects.

The North Carolina House is expected to vote today on a package that would offer income tax breaks to companies that invest more than $1 billion over nine years in a rural area of the state and pay above-average salaries, according to local media.  

The size of the project raises interesting questions about Apple’s ambitions for its online operations. The $1 billion price tag is nearly twice the $500 to $600 million that Microsoft and Google typically invest in the enormous data centers that power their cloud computing platforms. 

Apple requires sturdy web infrastructure to power its iTunes store and the iPhone app store. Apple customers have downloaded more than than 6 billion songs from the iTunes store, and more than 1 billion iPhone apps from the app store. 

But the budget for the East Coast facility suggests a much larger facility than the 109,000 square foot Newark, Calif. data center Apple bought in 2006 to support its growing infrastructure. Apple also operates a data center on its Cupertino, Calif. campus, and has used content delivery networks from Akamai (AKAM) and Limelight Networks (LLNW) to distribute content to its users around the globe.