

Ask HN: Apple North Carolina Data Center - jason_slack

My 12 year old son lives, breathes, eats, sleeps Apple. His iPad is his prize possession.<p>He has been asking me about Apple building a data center in North Carolina. He is pretty technical in his questions. If anyone has any input, I would really appreciate it so I can better help him understand what he wants to know.<p>1. What hardware will they use? XServe's? Mac Pro's?<p>* I actually would not even have a clue here as to what they are doing. He assumes that since it is Apple they will be using Apple hardware?<p>2. Operating systems: OS X Server? Linux?<p>* again, he assumes OS X Server.<p>3. How much storage, disk space will they have and how will it be setup?<p>* I tried explaining that perhaps they will have 42U racks filled with NAS devices, maybe each holding 24 drives (which takes up 5U of Space) so approximately 5-6 of these per rack (allowing for air flow, power, wiring, etc) and several racks of these. Also, that maybe one "server" would control several racks of these drive setups.<p>Does anyone have any thoughts on the architecture/setup of the facility?
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anigbrowl
Have him write a letter to Steve Jobs c/o Apple and be sure to mention that he
is 12. Not only will this be a valuable education in DIY, but he might get a
tour or suchlike. At worst, a reply from some anonymous minion in the PR
department will still be on official Apple stationery, and therefore more
valuable than gold to a 12 year old.

