Confirmed: Apple Chooses Oregon for its Third Data Center
The North Carolina data center Apple built a few years back wasn’t enough, so the company built an identical one next to it, cookie-cutter style. Now apparently that’s not enough either, which is why Apple is once again building another data center, this one in Prineville, Ore. So what does Apple need all this data space for? Here’s what I’m thinking …
First up, a tip of the hat goes to Prinveille local news station KTVZ NewsChannel 21, which confirmed with Apple that a new data center would be spinning up on 160 acres “a stone’s throw from the huge facility built by Facebook.” The official project was code-named “Project Maverick” to maintain some secrecy while Apple shopped the deal, according to the NewsChannel 21, which also noted Apple decided to build in the area thanks to a new state tax that had been lifted for “cloud” data centers, similar to Facebook’s digs.
But what will Apple be operating out of such a massive data center? It could be a variety of things, from the expansion of the iCloud platform to the ever-growing iTunes library. It could even host massive amounts of television provider content, should the much-rumored new AppleTV ever launch. One thing we know for sure is that Apple is growing like crazy.
If Apple needs to build a brand new mothership-style campus, in addition to a large scale data center, Apple seems poised for something bigger and better than what we’ve already seen from the company. Maybe something even bigger than the iPhone 5.