Data center

Apple beefing up iCloud infrastructure ahead of rumored TV push and streaming-music launch

As it gears up to launch its subscription music-streaming service today and a rumored television service later in the year, Apple's reportedly been building out a high-speed network to ensure glitch-free delivery of content, Bloomberg reported Monday. But the firm isn't just building a more efficient iCloud.

In a typical Apple fashion, it's been pouring billions of dollars into upgrading how it builds data centers in order to speed up content delivery, and optimize services such as iCloud, iTunes and Siri.

Additionally, the initiative should help with iCloud outages that have become the norm lately as web services have traditionally been Apple's weak spot.

Apple investing nearly $2 billion in new European data centers in Ireland and Denmark

Apple on Monday announced plans to pour €1.7 billion, or approximately $1.92 billion, into new data centers in Ireland and Denmark, its biggest European projects to date. One will be located in County Galway's Athenry in Ireland and the other in Denmark’s central Jutland.

In line with Apple's commitment to clean energy, each 166,000-square-meter data center will be powered by 100 percent renewable energy sources “from day one”. The upcoming facilities are expected to begin operations in 2017 and will support Apple’s online services for customers in Europe, including the iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri.

Failed sapphire plant to become global command center for Apple cloud

Apple's dream of engineering an unbreakable iPhone has shattered spectacularly to pieces after its ambitiously conceived manufacturing facility in Mesa, Arizona has failed to produce sapphire-hardened sheets of glass on an industrial scale, prompting its partner GT Advanced Technology to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. But that doesn't mean there's no just as grand plan B for the mega-facility.

Bloomberg is reporting, and Apple has confirmed, that the Arizona plant will become a “command center” for Apple's worldwide network of data center.

Apple reaches deal to build third solar farm in North Carolina

The Hickory Daily Record is reporting that Apple has recached a deal with the city council of Claremont, North Carolina to purchase land for a new solar panel farm. This will be the company's third solar farm in the Maiden area.

According to the report, Apple will be annexing 100-acres for the new array and will be making an initial investment of $55 million. The solar farm will generate 17.5 megawatts of power for its massive North Carolina data center...

NBC’s ‘Today’ offers peek inside Apple’s North Carolina data center

Continuing with its recent 'green' marketing push, Apple offered folks a rare look inside its Maiden, North Carolina data center last night. The company paired up with NBC chief environmental correspondent Anne Thompson to do a spot on Thursday's edition of the 'Today' show regarding its various environmental initiatives.

The piece is fairly short—just under 3 minutes—but it's interesting because it gives you a peek inside Apple's data center operations, and details some of the equipment used to power the large buildings. Also, it features a brief appearance by the company's newly-appointed Vice President of Environmental Initiatives Lisa Jackson...

Greenpeace praises Apple and others for helping build a greener Internet

Apple has quite the history with environmental organization Greenpeace. The outfit has panned the iPad maker several times over the years for using toxic chemicals in its products and other non-green practices—it even staged a protest outside of its Cupertino headquarters back in 2012.

A lot has changed over the years, however, and this week, instead of protesting Apple, Greenpeace took to the skies to praise it and other companies for helping build 'a greener Internet.' That image you see above is of a blimp that the environmental advocacy group flew over Silicon Valley...

Apple once again expanding its North Carolina data center

According to permits filed with Catawba County, Apple is once again expanding its data center facilities in Maiden North Carolina. The plans say the new data center building will cover 14,246 square feet with walls 25 feet tall, made of concrete panels and steel columns.

The building will look very similar to the 'tactical' data center that Apple added to the site in 2012, and have a similar layout with banks of computers in the main portion of it and 11 air units to cool it. It will also feature various security measures, including a 'man-trap' door...

Report offers closer look at Apple’s renewable energy plant in North Carolina

Apple is one of the of the largest [non-utility] clean energy generating companies in the country. According to a report from March of this year, it's achieved 100% renewable energy in all of its data centers, and 75% in corporate buildings.

Of course, its crown jewels are the solar panel and biogas fuel cell farms that run its Maiden, North Carolina data center—two of the largest of their kind in the US. And a recent report from GigaOM takes a closer look at these NC facilities...

Apple announces Nevada solar array in its 2012 Environmental Footprint Report

A filing Monday by NV Energy with the Public Utilities Commission revealed that Apple will pay for construction of an 18-megawatt photovoltaic solar plant to power its northern Nevada data centre. The company has now officially announced the facility in its 2012 Environmental Footprint Report, writing it will be "every bit" as environmentally responsible as its data center in Maiden, North Carolina. The Fort Churchill Solar Array, as it is called, could create hundreds of jobs during the construction period...

Apple set to build solar panel farm for Reno data center

According to a new report, Apple is looking to team up with the Nevada utility company NV Energy to build a solar panel farm next to its Reno data center. The farm will span 137 acres and, like the company's two North Carolina arrays, the Reno one is expected to provide somewhere between 18 and 20 megawatts of power...

Bird’s-eye view of Oregon’s upcoming iCloud

After taking up to the skies early-August to grab high-quality aerial photos of Apple’s 100-acre solar farm and a mysterious tactical data center - both located in Maiden, North Carolina - Wired now has dispatched its "iSpy Plane" in order to take a closer look at Apple's enormous data center site in the middle of Oregonian high desert. The facility is located right in the neighborhood of another insanely massive data center run by the social networking giant Facebook.

In fact, Facebook already operates twin data centers in the area whereas Apple less than two months ago started construction on the first of two 338,000 square-foot buildings planned for the site. Though construction just got started, a mysterious "tactical data center" is already up and running...