Apple’s demand for computing power and remote server space is growing at a rapid rate thanks to new services like iCloud, iTunes Match, and Siri.
Demand is growing so fast, in fact, that it appears that its new $1 billion dollar data center in North Carolina and its recently-acquired 12 petabytes of server space aren’t enough to support Apple’s cloud division anymore…
Oregon Live is reporting that Apple is eying 160-acres worth of land in Prineville, Oregon, a small city that sits about 150 miles southeast of Portland, to build a new data center.
“The world’s largest tech company is nearing a decision on whether to build a large data center in Prineville, a quarter mile south of the Facebook server farm that opened earlier this year, according to two people with direct knowledge of Apple’s plans.”
As the article points out, there aren’t many incentives for a city to host large data centers. They don’t bring about many job opportunities, and eat fairly large amounts of electricity. Apple estimates its data center would need around 31-megawatts of power, which is enough to power nearly 22,000 houses.
But the company’s land ownership and large building would mean Prineville would see a significant boost in tax collections. And the data center would provide a few hundred short-term jobs during its construction. So, there certainly are some upsides.
According to the source, Apple has until the end of the month to decide whether or not it wants to proceed and purchase the land.
[9to5Mac]