Apple building new, smaller data center in North Carolina
We all know about Apple's mega data center in Maiden, North Carolina. The center, with its solar farm and fuel cells, has been a popular topic of discussion here on TUAW since the groundbreaking years ago. Now the Hickory Daily Record is reporting that Apple's building a smaller "tactical" data center on the Maiden site.
The new center is tiny -- just 21,030 square feet -- compared to the monstrous 500,000 square foot facility next door. The 11-room facility is apparently not designed for permanent occupancy, as it has only one unisex bathroom.
Even though the site currently has very tight security measures, the new building is equipped with "man trap" security doors requiring clearance after entering the first door but before being allowed to go into the main building space. It's surrounded by an 8-foot chain-link security fence as well.
The building services chief for Catawba County, NC, Rick Frady, said that the building was described as a stand-alone metal building with a concrete pad. The US$1,885,129 structure is the second on the site; architectural diagrams show a third data center building planned for the site.
