Apple’s new data center can now be seen on Google Earth and Maps, where until yesterday it only showed woods and farmland with a driveway that ended in the middle of a field. Now you can see the data center in all its glory.
It seems to be quite a coincidence that the data center has now appeared after Apple announced that iCloud would be shown off at WWDC next week. We assume that this huge data center will be the source of all the iCloud goodness that we will find out about on Monday coming. Remember, we will be covering all the events as they unfold.
If you want to have a look at the data center for yourself, just type in 6081 Startown Road, Maiden NC into your Google Maps search box!
[Fortune]
Reader comments
Apple’s new data center magically appears on Google Earth and Maps
oh great...................deforestation
Hey, come on! Progress means some sacrifices. In every aspect. Maybe your house was in a forest too...
Perfectly natural to replace trees with clouds
+1
@JoBlow: +1!
@Aliff: Well, to be fair, that land was probably cleared for farming well over a century ago, so Apple most likely had little if anything to do with that area's "deforestation."
A simple, coincidence, image satellite update?
WHY NORTH CAROLINA OF ALL PLACES?
Because NC has one of the best technology infrastructures in the country. Some of the largest technology companies in the world call NC home.
That, and it's probably cheaper for Apple to do business in NC than in CA.
I know the land is about a billion times cheaper.
It would be difficult and a bad idea to operate a datacenter like that in CA. You want stable ground that is not pron to earthquakes, hurricanes or typhoons. You also want a stable electric grid.and of course cheep land.
That is a big ass data center
Those are not satellite pictures, its aerial photographs taken by airplanes and updated from time to time. Nothing magical about it.
"Magically" was meant as sarcasm...as in Apple products being called "magical" by Steve Jobs.
I wonder how fast the buildings internet connection is.
Dialup
10 Gigs, that's the current roof on bandwidth connections.
Why oh why didn't they build it in the shape of the Apple logo. How cool would that have looked on Google earth.
Agree!!!
Turned off no. Battery off and can not be changed...
Verry funny, tell that to HTC's unibody android phones. Apple not having a removable battery has never hurt anyways as out of the box their devices have some of the best battery life in the industry.
However in the past iPod batteries not being swapable has been annoying. Used to be people changed phones a lot but kept mp3s for a few years.
Now I can store everything on my Droid Incredible.
Sounds like your humor chip is malfunctioning.
+2
Now all we need is some street view pictures.
It's just a decoy. The real data center is 1 mile underground 5 miles away.
I wonder what they will be doing for Disaster Recovery. Did they build two of these?
Don't bother with street view. You won't see anything from the road. I live 20 minutes away. During construction you could see a bit of it, but once it was done they built a berm and now you can only see a driveway. You can't even see any light as you drive by. As to "deforestation," don't be silly. The area is farmland and most forest is less than 50-75 years old.
Huge building, very little parking. That is kinda surprising. Guess it doesn't take many people to actually maintain the behemoth.