Wednesday, 27th of May 2009 at 10:55:28 PM
Hey All, Kurt Here. Long time, no write.
Anyway, I was just reading on CNN’s SciTechBlog how Apple might be shopping around for a location for a new $1 billion server farm and thought to myself ‘Why Not in Houston?’ We are already home to the Number 1 dedicated server hosting provider in the world. Why not Apple’s server farm as well? Does anyone know whether the Greater Houston Partnership, the Houston Technology Center’s Emerging Technology Council, or the Mayor’s Office is pursuing this? If not, they should. It is moves like this that help to build solid technology foundations for a city.
Apple plans $1 billion ’server farm’
Apple appears to be planning a major upgrade to its online capabilities. Reports indicate the company is shopping around for a location to build a $1 billion server farm. This cluster of networked computers would power Apple’s future Web operations.
The iTunes and the iPhone app store are certainly growing, but this massive project suggests Apple may have something new up its sleeve — or is the $1 billion price tag expected given the Apple gear that will likely be used?
Data Center Knowledge writes:
The size of the project raises interesting questions about Apple’s ambitions for its online operations. The $1 billion price tag is nearly twice the $500 to $600 million that Microsoft and Google typically invest in the enormous data centers that power their cloud computing platforms.
While the location of the data center is not yet decided, the Associated Press reports North Carolina lawmakers are salivating at the prospect of of bringing a billion dollars to their state. Legislators have proposed tax breaks for Apple that could amount to $46 million in the next decade, assuming the company reaches its $1 billion investment target within nine years:
Though the Apple site is initially expected to employ fewer than 100 full-time workers, legislators said the potential prize was so juicy it justified changing the state’s corporate tax formula to benefit a single company.
Come on Houston! Don’t let North Carolina walk away with this! Let’s bring Apple to Houston!!
Why not in Houston? Because if they even got near here they would go to some better place like the Woodlands where the city won’t rape them for fines and taxes and fees all the time. Not only that, it’s election time amd they’re too busy securing their family’s future fortunes and cutting each other’s throats, as well as running their real estate business and building unemployed people houses with taxpayer money and not fixing roads or providing services like they promised they would and DON’T.
As much of a Houston-booster as I am, we’re not the right place for this. Server farms need 3 main things: cheap electricity (usually hydropower, like in WA and OR or even NC), easy to cool the tremendous heat they generate (i.e. a cool climate), and a no-disaster zone (hurricanes = bad). We sorta strike out on all 3 of these.
It’s not that great a prize anyway: few jobs, and the vast majority of the budget will be for buying hardware – no benefit at all to the local economy.
Hydro power is the way to go. I cant wait ti the air is a little cleaner and we can all breathe easier
why not houston? because if theres a major hurricane you can say good by to houston. same goes for north carolina and anywhere in california -earthquakes- or near yosemite. but then again if that blows half the world is gona get iced…
so yea, gotta hit up like kansas or nevada, west virginia