Apple will build the second data center in China
Apple will build the second data center in China, located in Ulanchap, Inner Mongolia.
The new data center has been named as iCloud Northern Data Center. As the host, Bu Xiaolin, Deputy Director and Chairman of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region met with Isabel Ge Mahe (Ge Yue), Apple’s Vice President and Managing Director of Greater China, in Hohhot on September 18.
Ms. Ge Mahe, introducing the purpose of the visit, said: “After the early investigation, we decided to establish the iCloud Northern Data Center in Ulanchap, the grassland Silicon Valley.” Apple and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region both dispatched heavyweight leaders, showing that the iCloud Northern Data Center has gained momentum.
Ulanchap’s Advantages
In July, 2017, Apple announced that it would invest $ 1 billion to build a iCloud data center in Guizhou. This was their first data center in China.
Compared with Guizhou, Ulanchap is 320 kilometers from Beijing, and the Beijing-Ulanchap direct flight only takes one hour. In addition, Ulanchap has abundant electricity resources, with the total installed capacity reaching 13.4 million kilowatts. The cloud computing enjoys a preferential electricity tariff of ¥ 0.26/kWh, less than 1/3 of that in Beijing and Tianjin. The average temperature in Ulanchap is 4℃. It is dry and cool so that the data center can cool itself. The geological structure is stable, and no geo-hazard has happened here in history.
Located in the Chahar Economic and Technological Development Zone, the Ulanchap Information Industry Park is 320 kilometers from Beijing, covering an area of 13 square kilometers. In July, 2016, Huawei Cloud Data Center was settled in the Park and put into operation. At present, the projects with Apple, Toutiao, China Cable Television Network, China CDC, CITIC Guoan Group, Soshare, etc. are under negotiation .
Fiercer Competition in Cloud Computing
Many users need iCloud to store their pictures, videos, documents, apps, etc., so the iCloud can be bound with the iPhone to realize the data synchronization. Establishing the data center in Inner Mongolia can not only reduce the cost of data storage and transmission, but improve iCloud’s performance to compete with China’s local cloud service companies and to gain more users.
In fact, local companies have been developing cloud computing recently as well. Huawei has announced ambitions to become a top five global cloud computing company. It plans to upgrade the Cloud BU to a business group, and to add 2000 staff this year.
On September 15, Baidu announced in Beijing that Baidu Cloud team has expanded from 200 members to 1100 in a year. The profit base was modest, but the revenue has increased by three times, and the number of customers ten times compared with the same period last year. Meanwhile, JD hired Samuel Shen (Shen Yuanqing), general manager of Cloud & Enterprise Division of Microsoft China last week.
This article originally appeared in IDC-quan and was translated by Pandaily.
Click here to read the original Chinese article.
