“Tech giant Apple Inc. confirmed Tuesday to NewsChannel 21 that it plans to build a data center at a 160-acre parcel in Prineville it just bought from Crook County for $5.6 million, a stone’s throw from the huge facility built by Facebook,” Ted Taylor and Barney Lerten report for KTVZ-TV.
“No one in Prineville or elsewhere had been able to speak on the record about the deal previously, due to non-disclosure agreements the company has had officials sign,” Taylor and Lerten report. “But the Feb. 15 filing is the first public document to identify Apple Inc. as the ‘Project Maverick’ buyer, complete with the ‘1 Infinite Loop’ address in Cupertino, Calif… Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet confirmed Tuesday that they purchased the land for a data center, but could not speak to details beyond that.”
“The deed was signed by county commissioners on Feb. 15 – the very day, and likely not a coincidence, that the Oregon Senate passed legislation to lift a property tax ‘cloud’ over data centers such as Facebook that are lured to enterprise zones in large part due to sizable property tax breaks,” Taylor and Lerten report. “Crook County Judge Mike McCabe said he was still bound by the non-disclosure agreement, though the filing left him a bit freer to talk. ‘We just don’t know what their plans are,’ McCabe said, adding that he’s ‘confident it will be good for Prineville and Crook County… These folks have been wonderful to work with. We will look forward to a long-term relationship with them..”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “BigDon” for the heads up.]
Related article:
Apple eyes Prineville, Oregon site for huge data center – December 4, 2011
“Crook” County? You gotta be kidding.
Isnt that where Proview HQ is?
I believe that Proview is located in Extortion Province. Crook County is well to the northeast.
As in General Crook the guy who eventually captured Crazy Horse.
who did all right for himself at Little Big Horn
Hopefully they’re building data redundancy, in case North Carolina gets hit by some kind of natural disaster.
“Hopefully they’re building data redundancy, in case North Carolina gets hit by some kind of natural disaster.”
iCloud?…
iTornado or iEarthquake…
You’re joking, right?
Where do you think the cloud is? In the sky???
LMAO!!!!!!!!
As Siri learns new languages, she’ll need a lot more space.
I always heard Apple was going to build a replicant for the Maiden NC site: and here it is, right on schedule. (Interesting that they’d build literally down the street from Facebook.)
My understanding is that Prineville is expected not so much to double total cloud capacity, but to act as a failover site for the Maiden center: as well as potentially distribute global network traffic between two replicated sites on opposite coasts.
Given how much Apples ecosystem now depends on iCloud–including Siri, which has had many outage issues due to scaling and net congestion–this would make a lot of sense.
But man…look at the picture and imagine another data center just like it in Oregon: as big as a shopping mall, packed with refrigerated servers on acres and acres of raised floor; (even with energy efficiency) all those gigawatts consumed and all those MMBTUs produced…
…and then imagine Facebook, right next door, presumably doing the same thing.
Prineville is in the middle of nowhere, just sagebrush, rattlesnakes, and grass, but it has easy access to cheap Bonneville Dam electric power and winter temperatures that are routinely in the ‘teens. I know all of this because the family has a ranch near Prineville.
The snake in the grass is, as g-nome says, right next door
Remember that Apple is installing a massive solar array on the Maiden, NC facility. Presumably Oregon will get the same treatment.
@g-number:
My guess is that Apple and Facebook are taking entirely different approaches to their data center designs and the energy used/produced there: http://www.tuaw.com/2012/02/20/apple-touts-solar-array-at-north-carolina-data-center/
Thanks for this info, Al! Hailing from the NW myself, I did know that the region has some of the cheapest juice in the country: that’s why Apple and FB are there in the first place. But I hadn’t heard yet how far Apple is taking the “leed” on solar.
Looking at those acres of white roof, I feel a lot better knowing that, even though the power is relatively cheap, there’s still such a concerted effort to use as little of it as possible.
The data centers. It ain’t all iCloud. Just one fan boy opinion (possibly drunken opinion) but the silence regarding the data center(s) is getting purty dang loud. There is a major game changer waiting in the woods and no one is paying much attention. iCloud? Have it, love it but, Puuleeze. Sumpin’ going on right under the entire worlds noses.
How about those dividends? That’ll keep all the jackasses busy for a while.
Some of these comments are quite funny. I lived in Prineville and pretty much grew up there. Last I checked the unemployed runs around 20%. It used to be a big employer with Les Schwab and the many mill works available. The Woodwards Logging, Hudspeths, Clear Pine Mouldings,…I find it interesting that both FACEBOOK and APPLE are putting in their BIG data centers right across the street from each other. Winters will be darn cold and summers very hot,….Juniper Trees Sage Brush and this powdery fine dirt,…plenty of sun to run a solar power supplier. I wish the small sleepy town the BEST! Hopefully the Staffords and the Pridays will be able to increase occupancy in their hotels and things will look up for Prineville. BTW. – History lesson,..Barney Prine,….:-))