Apple's 500,000 square-foot datacenter facility has been deemed clear evidence of intent to enter cloud computing. The center is located where overhead is cheap, not where connectivity is currently maximized.
I'm missing some information, but it's possible I might disagree. By the time the facility is online, I think the location in North Carolina may be as connected as anyplace else -- and closer than current datacenters to Research Triangle Park's nation-leading density of Ph.D. talent (RTP was a Forbes top-five wired city, incidentally; the infrastructure for wired access might not be hard to come by in North Carolina), which may help Apple attract and keep some of the talent needed to make the center as effective as possible.
One thing is sure: it's not merely one of multiple redundant hubs for disseminating music or other static content. The new center will be capable of doing things Apple hasn't done before.
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I've been following this with interest having grown up near Maiden and spent most of my professional life in RTP.
The datacenter will be near Maiden NC, which is about 2 1/2 hours, by car, from Research Triangle Park. It's much closer to Charlotte, generally known as a business-oriented city rather than technology specifically -- although there is a strong financial presence in Charlotte that includes IT for finance.
Connectivity won't be bad, but Maiden isn't known for any concentration of PhDs. The general area used to be known for furniture making and cotton and spinning mills, and the general educational level is not extremely high, although this is improving gradually.
Your guess about Apple's exact intentions may be correct, however.
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