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#Post#: 44--------------------------------------------------
First Look: Apple's iCloud data center site inReno, Nevada
By: Apple Team Date: April 2, 2013, 9:29 am
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Apple has more in its pipeline than just new Macs and iOS
products; the company is aggressively planning outand building
new data centers to support iCloud and related iTunes features.
Here's a look at the next major construction project planned at
the new Reno Technology Park.
Seven years after locating its Braeburn Capital asset management
subsidiary in Reno, Nevada (largely for tax purposes), Apple is
planning an expansion of its footprint in the area for reasons
beyond favorable tax rates.
Among the top factors that attracted Apple's attention to Reno
were access to low cost power with solar and other renewable
options; availability of high speed fibre optic conduits;
limited risk of natural or man made disasters; and lower overall
costs combined with, of course,tax incentives.
While Apple's Braeburn group was attracted by the state's lack
of a corporate income tax, that factor is far less important to
the location of Apple's data centers, which don't directly
generate substantial revenues. Instead, low property and sales
taxes were important.
The State of Nevada, Washoe County and the City of Reno
collectively approved a series of tax abatements for Apple
lastsummer, paving the way for Apple to begin construction. The
incentives run for more than a decade, and portions of the tax
reductions can be extended through 2042.
However, Reno isn't the only location in the US with low
property and sales taxes, or economic conditions what will
prompt state and local governments to offer tax incentives to
attract the investment of a company like Apple.
Nebraska, Oregon and Wyoming have already adopted tax mitigation
legislation specifically to attract data centers. Texas and Utah
both offer greater tax incentive packages than Nevada does. But
taxes aren't the only thing data center builders like
Appleevaluate in picking a site.
A study that looked at a variety of competing datacenter
construction and operational cost factors at a series of
different potential sites performedby Nevada indicated that,even
with tax incentives, Reno couldn't beat the overall cost
advantages of a site in Oregon. Fortunately for Nevada, Apple
wants to build multiple sites; the company is now building
massive data centers in both Oregon and Nevada.
State and local governments aren't the only entities recognizing
the value of attracting the business of data centers. In 2009,
United Infrastructure Group, a large infrastructure developer,
looked at an existing industrial park (shown above) located
15miles east of Reno and decided it had the potential to host
technology expansion as well.
#Post#: 45--------------------------------------------------
Exclusive: Apple's initialiCloud facility in Reno already ready
to go online
By: Apple Team Date: April 2, 2013, 9:32 am
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Apple's latest data centerproject near Reno, Nev., was thought
to only be in early planning stages, butan initial segment of
the project is already complete and just days away from going
online, AppleInsider has learned.
The new data center, located 15 minutes east of Reno at the
emerging new Reno Technology Park, will be Apple's fourth major
server farmthe United States and the third project the company
has built from scratch.
A rapid pace and massivescale of construction
In 2010, the company built a 500,000 square foot facility in
Maiden, N.C., that went online in 2011, multiplying
Apple'savailable data center square footage by nearly six over
the initial 107,000-square-foot center it had acquired in 2006.
Apple was reported to be planning adoubling of the Maiden site's
vast structure.
Last October, Apple broke ground on a parallel project now under
construction in Prineville, Ore. A 338,000-square-foot building
(about twice the size of a Costco store) is now taking shape
there; asecond, equally large building is planned to joinit,
again doubling the company's existing iCloudfootprint. There's
also lots of surrounding land left for additional buildings on
the 160 acresite.
The size and rapid construction pace of Apple's existing data
center facilities makes it interesting that the company is now
planning another large data centerproject relatively close toit:
Reno is just 460 miles south of Prineville.
Apple hits the ground running in Reno
Even more surprising is the fact that Apple is moving forward on
the parallel Reno site so rapidly. As the project site was still
being finalized, the company asked for permission to begin work
on an initial, aproximately 20,000-square-foot structure to get
head start on the construction project.
Both ends of the long building (pictured above) have five vents
supporting massive fans to pull air through the structure.
Behind it, there appears to be a water chilling system (visible
below from the side) similar to the one built in Maiden.
Pictured from the air (below, during final construction),
Apple's initial building is just off the freeway but behind a
hill, making the project site appear to be nothing but empty
land to people driving past.
The relatively small initial facility appears similar to a
21,000-square-foot secondary"tactical" structure revealed in
permits at the Maiden site, as well as a 10,000-square-foot
building Apple rapidly built in Oregon as soon asit acquired the
land there.
Plans for the similar structure in Maiden were described as
involving"tight security measures,"including "man trap" security
doors that will require people to go through two doors to
gainaccess, and an 8-foot-high chain-link security fence.
The initial Reno facility issurround by black lamp posts
outfitted with cameras, and is staffed with security personnel,
although has only basic fencing in place. The simple initial
structure is now apparently finished and, according to a person
familiar with Apple's plans, is set to go online in the coming
weeks.
It is possible that Apple started work on the initial building
to serve asa testing center to help inplanning the full
deployment, including optimization of the site's connection with
local power, water and data networks.
The company has 345 acres of land surroundingthe building,
nearly twice the area of its Prineville project, allowing for
vast expansion of both data center buildings and supporting
structures, including solar fields.
As with its previous data center projects, Apple has taken a
leading role in pushing the envelope in green design, with the
Maiden facility being the largest data center to meet the strict
rules of LEED Platinum construction.
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