“Reno, Nevada is already known to many Apple aficionados as the home of Braeburn Capital, the asset management company that handles Apple’s massive $135 billion cash hoard,” Nathanael Arnold reports for Wall St. Cheat Sheet. “However, as AppleInsider reports, there is something else that Apple is doing in the Nevada desert besides saving its money.”
“In anticipation of the expected large-scale consumer expansion into cloud computing, Apple has begun construction of a massive data center site located about 15 miles east of Reno,” Arnold reports. “The project is expected to cost over $1 billion.”
Arnold reports, “Whereas Apple located Braeburn Capital in Reno because of the state’s lack of corporate income tax, several other different factors made Reno an attractive location for Apple’s data center site.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
How Reno won the Apple data center prize – August 19, 2012
Reno City Council unanimously approves 79% tax break for Apple data center – June 28, 2012
Apple confirms Reno, Nevada as the site of its next U.S. data center pending tax break deals – June 26, 2012
Travis County approves tax incentives for Apple’s Austin campus expansion – May 2, 2012
Apple gets 15-year property tax exemption for $250 million data center in Prineville, Oregon – April 20, 2012
Apple confirms plans for Prineville, Oregon data center; deal signed after state senate passed tax legislation – February 22, 2012
Apple lobbies Obama for tax holiday, wants to bring overseas bounty home – August 24, 2011
U.S Senate Democrat Schumer allies with Apple, other multinationals on repatriation tax talks – June 21, 2011
Governor signs tax break, Apple confirms it will build NC data center, investing at least $1 billion – June 3, 2009
North Carolina Senate approves tax law change for Apple Inc. in 40-8 vote – June 2, 2009
North Carolina lawmakers OK tax incentives for Apple Inc. – May 27, 2009
Good. Sounds like a place that a giant energy sucking eye soar will be an improvement (and fit right in!)
Except for the fact that Apple has been creating most of it’s own energy and showing companies the way to responsibly run a business that size. See Also, North Carolina Data Center
I thought he was speaking about moving there and being a sucker !-)
Go back to grade school and learn how to spell.
Grammar grasshopper, grammer.
Over time, more and more of the processing for everyday computing activities will take place at these “data centers” instead of on the user’s computer or device. Siri, iCloud, and “search” are just very early examples. Devices will become smaller, more elegant, and more reliable because the “heavy lifting” will be off-loaded and centralized.
The current main obstacle to progress is the speed of most (so-called) “broadband” connectivity. Apple is putting the pieces in place for the time when that bottleneck goes away. THEN, the next true computing revolution happens. That’s (part of) what Apple will do with its cash hoard. Steadily (and stealthily) prepare…
Most of Apple’s competition (and “analysts”) can’t think beyond the next quarterly report, so they will be caught playing “catch-up” again, with Apple controlling the technology AND the capacity to implement the technology.
You just described mainframes.
You’re mostly right in concept… 🙂
Mainframe systems were designed that way because it was the most efficient method to get the power of the mainframe down to the user level. It would have been highly inefficient to give every user their own mainframe. And it worked because each “terminal” was actively and continuously connected to the mainframe, giving the user the impression of total control.
Yet, modern personal computing essentially gives each user their own mainframe. It has to work that way, because connectivity is somewhat limited (now getting better and better). Each computing device has to be able to operate independently most of the time. So, what the user could do is also limited.
What we need is a quantum leap in connectivity. Then, the system design will naturally shift back to how mainframe systems worked, because centralizing the “ultra-powerful computer” is more efficient than giving every user one. Yet, from the user’s perspective, their “normal” affordable and reasonably powerful computer, tablet, smartphone, wristwatch, brain implant, etc… will seem like some AI-enable super assistant (future Siri).
Prior art! Prior art!
Rotate this baby 90ª counterclockwise and slip a canted leaf over the top and we’re there with all the processing occurring not in the device!
Sounds like the Chrome notebook.
“… Apple has begun construction of a massive data center site located about 15 miles east of Reno.” I have read about several of these now. Anyone keeping count yet? Do the talking heads understand why Apple is building so many of these massive server farms? Have they understood that Apple needs these for the next big thing?
Locations I have read about to date:
• California
• North Carolina
• Hong Kong
• Oregon
• Nevada
Do the talking heads understand that Apple doesn’t need fuel cells and solar panels in Maiden, N.C.. It is the testing site for alternate energy options in locations without stable energy for the server farms being built there. Maybe in India, Africa, Asia, … No body really knows what Apple can build where information is restricted or better controlled. Building permits are so public in the places we have already read about.
“Think different” talking head clueless idiots. The story is right in your faces and you can’t read the tea leaves yet. Try getting an old investigative reporter out of retirement. They understood how to investigate a story that isn’t already on the internet to be searched.
So, if the next generation of Apple TV wanted to record unlimited TV shows, sports, family videos, … and it had very limited low cost storage, where would the media be stored? Come on talking heads. Which comes first something to watch media with or a place to stream it from and store it in? What if you wanted to watch it on any iOS device? You have to have many local data farms. So, it is like the worlds biggest Easter Egg Hunt. Where are the rest of the server farms being built? With more than $137 billion in cash in the bank now, do you really think Apple isn’t building them everywhere on every continent. OPEN YOUR EYES … LOOK AROUND … “THINK DIFFERENT”
If Glenn Beck can set up an Internet TV station with limited resources, what do you think Apple can do with a few billion dollars? Everywhere?
glen beck’s most limited resource is his pea brain
After having stood in the crowd of thousands in Washington with the rest unable to get there because the trains could not support the surge of attendees, you appear very uninformed.
Like Glenn Beck or not, he created an HD Internet streaming media source called The Blaze with limited resources that I am suggesting can be matched thousands of times over with Apple’s billions. There is an app for TheBlaze if you want to get educated about The Blaze. It was just a good example of what Apple could do with just a few billion.
True to its guiding principle of end-user high utility, Apple has been deliberately expanding from “mere” device maker to a services provider, along a trajectory that vertically integrates R&D, supply chain, manufacturing, and retail. The cloud is vital to this grand plan, these server farms soaking up a lot of capex dollars. The payoff will be increased consumer value and customer lock-in.
DVRs are trucks. Can we please enter the Post-DVR era?
There is no reason for each one of us to rerecord something that was delivered to us digitally. Even for live sports, etc, the server farm is just a reflector and recorder. Later on you needn’t play back your individual recording, you play it back from central storage.
the data centers need 2 things for picking location they need to be near major trunk lines and there has to be enough energy to cool them . i would think that in Nevada a big portion of the center would be buried to save energy on cooling . don’t believe me spend an afternoon in dowdy some time. there must be a balance between great solar collection and heat control . i am certain apple will have not only a practical solution but an elegant one