Apple's Green Apple Data Centers - Pragmatic Creativity

“I will call Apple, if no one offers a better name by five o’clock the next morning ...”
Steve Jobs, from Apple

’s history, Apple products, like the brand itself, have long been a symbol of innovation and creativity. It's time to talk about the data centers of this company.

Apple, created by creative ideologist and charismatic leader Steve Jobs, has always been distinguished by an original approach to the release of its products and services, most of which were pioneers in their field. At the same time, Apple always had a well-thought-out financial component, which allowed the company to actively develop and stay afloat, not just following market trends, but creating new market segments.

Interestingly, strategically, the company was not always embarrassed to position its products as a kind of “elite”, closed architecture, which is as user friendly as possible and at the same time as closed as possible. Therefore, with the development of the Internet, when it became possible to store music, install applications and develop web services, the company immediately went along the path of developing its data centers that could provide the caste of fans with their own capacities and maximally offer to centralize all services on a single Apple portal, bypassing the intermediate path with the rental of premises and resources. That is why in the future, the company was one of the first to provide cloud services that were in excellent agreement with Apple's global strategies.

Information on Apple data centers is extremely small: the company does not try to make them public by posting detailed reports and conducting tours. At the same time, it’s difficult to conceal anything from the general public in the Internet era, so we’ll follow a brief history of the development of Apple data centers.

So, the construction of the first data center was launched in 2001. The data center was located in Cupertino, not far from the headquarters of Apple in California (USA). The data center housed a little over 2,000 servers.

The second data center was purchased by Apple in 2006 in Newark (photo 1), California. Previously, this data center was built by WorldCom. Its area was about 10,000 square meters. meters. After this transaction, a data center with an area of ​​8300 square meters was acquired. meters in Santa Clara, but its capacity was never fully used.


Photo 1. Data center in Newark

Over time, it became clear that for a long time the capacities of these sites will not be enough - a data center of much larger size and capacity will be required. Therefore, the idea came up to build a larger data center for the tasks of the iCloud cloud service that was just starting to gain momentum.

Work on the creation of a new data center began in 2007 with the search for a site for the future data center. Based on the analysis, two sites were selected: one in Virginia and one in North Carolina. Thanks to the more favorable tax benefits Apple received in North Carolina, the balance has tipped toward the region. Interestingly, data centers such as Facebook, AT&T have built data centers in the same region. (Even Google before the construction of the data center in Lenoir City considered this area as a possible site.)

Initially, it was planned to buy the building of the textile factory, but its area by the standards of the company was not enough for the data center, even for a short time. The authorities of the town of Maiden, in order not to lose an investor, offered a large plot of land just five kilometers from this place. In 2009, near the highway number 321, a site of 1,032,000 square meters was acquired. meters, for which Apple paid $ 3.5 million. An interesting fact: part of the land had to be purchased from a married couple, and 4,000 square meters. meters of private property were bought from them for a record $ 1.7 million. Bidding lasted long enough, this deal received great publicity, and the press called it the “Golden Acre”. The family that bought this land 43 years ago for only $ 6,000 acquired 200,000 sq. M after a deal with Apple representatives. meters of land and built a luxurious house.

The land plot was conditionally divided into two parts - according to the construction phases. The first phase of the construction program was called Dolphin ("Dolphin"), the second phase of the program - Dolphin 2 (photo 2).


Photo 2. Site layout: the white building in the photo is the data center of the first stage, there is a reserve place for the second building (second stage) nearby

It is symbolic that the data center received the letter “i” (like most Apple products) and became known as iDataCenter . Queues are built according to a standard design, so data centers have mirror layouts. The area of ​​each building is about 48,000 square meters. meters (By the way, meters often appeared in translated Russian-language materials instead of square feet, which caused a funny thing in the press: the data center was called almost the largest in the world ), the full design capacity of the data center is 20 MW. It is planned to expand the data center using modular container data centers in the vicinity of the NxGen building. Next to this site are two solar arrays with a total capacity of 20 MW (photo 3). The second source of power supply, which is also used for this data center, is a biogas-powered power plant. It is obtained from the decomposition of biomass, which is taken from the nearest landfill. Methane produced from biogas is purified and accumulated. Power plant capacity is 5 MW. The technology is not new, but the usual principle of a cogeneration unit for generating electricity is not used here - it is obtained chemically: by the oxidation of methane in solid oxide fuel cells of the Bloom Box Energy Server (photo 4). But these are not final figures: it is planned to increase the capacity of both sources to 40 MW (photo 5). by methane oxidation in solid oxide fuel cells Bloom Box Energy Server (photo 4). But these are not final figures: it is planned to increase the capacity of both sources to 40 MW (photo 5). by methane oxidation in solid oxide fuel cells Bloom Box Energy Server (photo 4). But these are not final figures: it is planned to increase the capacity of both sources to 40 MW (photo 5).


Photo 3. General layout of the area: at the top is a fuel cell farm (green rectangle), in the center is a data center (white polygon), to the right is an array of solar cells (large green polygon).


Photo 4. Fuel cells on Bloom Box biogas.


Photo 5. Solar panels against the backdrop of the rising sun look enchanting

. As for the cooling system, a water system with an economizer is used here, thanks to which the heat exchangers are cooled by outside air (without involving the chiller groups) about 75% of the time a year. Moreover, Apple stated that the chiller group is rarely turned on: only at a time when reduced electricity tariffs are in effect.
Cooled coolant is stored in battery tanks located near the building (photo 6). This approach saves on cooling about 10 MW / hour per day.


Photo 6. Water storage tanks and a powerful protective perimeter.

The iDataCenter also used other measures to reduce energy costs: the data center is painted white on the outside to reduce heat from the sun; three-phase power supply of equipment in racks; Throughout the building, LED lights and variable speed fans are used. For such "environmental friendliness", this data center was awarded the LEED Platinum certificate.

As IT equipment, HP equipment is actively used, data storage systems - TerraData and NetApp.
However, the construction of Apple data centers has not been completed: in October 2012, work began on another major data center - in Prinville, Oregon (by the way, a Facebook data center has already been built across the street from this site, in addition, there are Google and Amazon data centers). The reason for the popularity of this area is the exemption from real estate tax provided by local authorities. Information about this object is covered with a veil of secrecy, as well as the date of completion of its construction, but, presumably, the capacity of the data center is about 20 MW. It is planned to build two lines, each of which will be an independent building with an area of ​​31,500 square meters. meters. The company plans to transfer this facility to power from alternative sources of electricity.


Photo 7. Modular data center NxGen, which is actively using Apple.

Considering the history of the establishment of Apple data centers, you can see certain trends specific to this company. Firstly, the goals of data centers are clearly indicated: if the first was a launching pad, the second and third are data centers for storing iTunes and AppStore content. The deployment of iCloud cloud technologies required the company to create its own large data centers with high requirements for energy efficiency and environmental friendliness in order to reduce their maintenance costs.

Secondly, the company changed the concept of buying a finished data center to the concept of building its own data center. And all this despite the fact that the purchased data centers cost her more than two times cheaper than the average market value. It can be assumed that the implementation of large data centers is too tied to the client’s business model, and the data center of one large company will be completely inexpedient for another having a different business from it. Accordingly, Apple would not have been able to buy a data center that satisfies all its characteristics perfectly.

Thirdly, the transfer of data centers to 100 percent power supply from renewable sources of energy gives an effect not only in terms of enhancing the company's image, but also a very real economic effect and stabilization of the cost of maintenance. It is noteworthy that Apple focuses on this factor, and not on the record decrease in PUE. The energy independence of data centers allows you not to get attached to being near large power plants, which means it reduces the cost of energy supply infrastructure.

Konstantin Kovalenko
Magazine TsODy.RF №3 May 2013