
Apple to build huge €850m 'data centre' in Ireland's fields of Athenry - BTrapunzel
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/technology/apple-to-build-huge-850m-data-centre-in-irelands-fields-of-athenry-31014151.html
======
jacknews
Both Ireland and Denmark are notoriously "tax efficient" options in Europe.
You can't really blame corporations themselves for seeking the best deal for
themselves, their customers, and let's not forget the shareholders.

However the system that brings this about is of course to blame, the same
system that brings sweatshops and environmental ravage; feral market
capitalism.

Although it's a system that does indeed increase the overall size of the pie,
it must be properly stewarded and milked (via anti-trust laws, taxation, etc,
etc) to ensure that the capital owners don't run away with the whole thing
leaving just crumbs for everyone else.

Unfortunately as you can see, the international environment is not ideal for
providing the consistent measures really required, and companies will slip
through the cracks to find the best deals for themselves, often much better
than if they were under any single tax regime.

~~~
wodenokoto
As a Dane this is the first time I've heard "Denmark" and "tax efficient" in
the same sentence. Denmark is notorious for high taxes.

Right now there's a huge scandal about Danish companies that have moved to
European tax havens.

~~~
jacknews
[http://cphpost.dk/news/denmark-billed-as-perfect-tax-
haven.8...](http://cphpost.dk/news/denmark-billed-as-perfect-tax-
haven.8286.html)

------
codewithcheese
It's amazing that €850m project is expected to bring only 300 jobs during
multiple phases of construction. Avg'd out thats nearly €3m of expenditure per
employee. Nearly double Apple average earnings per employee of $2m.
Impressive!

~~~
CPLX
Well seeing as how it's basically a one story building filled with computers,
you can assume the truly vast majority of that money is to be spent on the
computers made (and generating jobs) wherever they are sourced.

------
bhouston
So Apple has built one other data center recently. Are they seeing this much
growth from their video offerings to justify this?

I always thought that the primary video offering through Apple TV was NetFlix,
not Apple's services.

Are these data centers to offering Video for iTunes or are they the storage
for iPhoto/etc?

Or is Apple just moving off of others infrastructure to their own for
efficiency sake?

What is the drivers for these huge data centers?

~~~
k-mcgrady
They do a lot more in 'the cloud' than video. The entire iTunes Store, iCloud
(which now lets you backup your entire photo library), Maps, streaming music
(iTunes Radio and Beats Music).

~~~
bhouston
I guess. I just know in my house, the downloads of Apps, Maps, and Photos are
really small compared to Video -- streaming video is +90% of our house's
bandwidth.

But I guess at Apple's scale Apps, Maps and Photos add up to a lot.

------
tacojuan
Kinda surprised nobody has brought up the whole Microsoft Ireland thing going
on right now.

Maybe Apple sees Ireland as a privacy conscious data-haven.

------
blahpro
Hmm. This article refers to the data centre as an "Apple Factory" and
misspells Tim Cook's name.

------
andy_ppp
So they are building a search engine?

You can see the marketing already; it'll be Apple wading in on personal
profiling and data capture with shiny marketing that points the finger
squarely at Google.

I suspect their search engine will be crap however, unless they are logging
everything you do with your phone :-D

~~~
citruspi
> You can see the marketing already; it'll be Apple wading in on personal
> profiling and data capture with shiny marketing that points the finger
> squarely at Google. I suspect their search engine will be crap however,
> unless they are logging everything you do with your phone :-D

The difference between Apple and Google is that the former makes money by
selling products and the latter makes money by providing free services,
building profiles, and selling advertisements.

Even if Apple did start building profiles of users, their end goal would be to
create a better user experience, get users into the Apple ecosystem, and sell
them hardware. It would not be to directly make money from the search engine
by building profiles and serving advertisements.

Personally, I would be completely fine with paying Apple a monthly fee for
access to a fully featured search engine that doesn't profile its users.

Having said that, it's completely possible to build a good search engine
without profiling users - for example, DuckDuckGo.

~~~
venomsnake
> The difference between Apple and Google is that the former makes money by
> selling products and the latter

You mean renting products. A device without root, with locked bootloader,
without the ability to install any software that you wish is not really sold.

~~~
citruspi
> You mean renting products.

No, I mean sold. Renting is when you no longer own a product once you stop
paying for it.

I rent Netflix's service. I purchase my iPhone. Once I've paid for my iPhone,
Apple won't take it back.

> A device without root, with locked bootloader, without the ability to
> install any software that you wish is not really sold.

It is. It's simply less valuable to someone who wants root, an unlocked boot
loader, and the ability to install any software.

Would you say you purchase the new Keurig machines or would you say you rent
them?

~~~
venomsnake
The fact that I cannot use my iDevice at all before connecting with apple
servers (on an iPhone, just because I did not had sim during first boot, I was
not able to use it even as an iPod) shows who controls what the device can do.
It is not you - the owner who payed for it.

> Once I've paid for my iPhone, Apple won't take it back.

But they can still wipe it remotely ...

Oh you obviously own some amount of atoms and molecules. You just don't own
and control what makes your device useful or device.

------
s_kilk
Ah, I was born and raised in Athenry, so this is a very nice surprise :)

~~~
jessaustin
The fields there, would you say they lie low? Are they populated by small
birds? b^)

~~~
s_kilk
Not really, it's mostly sheep and the un-employed :)

In all seriousness, it's a lovely little town, with some nice scenery and good
people. This new data-centre should see at least a short-term boost to the
local economy, which basically sank into a black-hole after The Collapse.

------
easytiger
Can't say having a competitive tax rate doesn't bring jobs!

~~~
mazesc
The double Irish isn't a competitive tax rate. It is a tax evasion scheme.
Just some links I found quickly:

[http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/20/opinion/ireland-still-
addi...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/20/opinion/ireland-still-addicted-to-
tax-breaks.html) [http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/abolition-of-
double-...](http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/abolition-of-double-irish-
in-budget-2015-welcomed-by-eu-tax-commissioner-1.1963188)

~~~
arcadeparade
Actually it turns out corporations pay more tax in Ireland than they do in
countries like France or Canada: [http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/ireland-
tax-haven-1796050-N...](http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/ireland-tax-
haven-1796050-Nov2014/)

~~~
Agustus
If one can get rid of the large amount of work that goes into preparing taxes,
many companies would prefer a simpler system as opposed to one riddled with
loopholes for things like propane and natural gas tax breaks for mint farms; I
am looking at you Washington!

------
virtuallynathan
Seems like an awfully large datacenter - 1.7mil sq ft? That is more than 2x
(closer to 3x) the size that Google/Amazon/Microsoft build.

------
pgtruesdell
Apple chief executive Tim Cooke?

------
wodenokoto
Why is data centre in quotes? Is it not a real data center?

------
chinathrow
This is so incredibly stupid. Latency to Ireland from all over western europe
is way more than anywhere else.

Irelands tax evasion methods will not last.

~~~
igravious
Oh come on. You got stats to back that up?

Anyway. Maybe it's going to serve North America?

Here, I drew (on) a fiber-optic cable map for you:
[http://imgur.com/yoEo9km](http://imgur.com/yoEo9km) (first time I've ever
used imgur to make a point, heh)

Seems like this is the cable:
[http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/24814-us-300m-tran...](http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/24814-us-300m-transatlantic-
fibre) \- that'd be the Republic's `Taoiseach' (prime minister) grabbing a
photo-op there.

Here's a news report from the Irish Times about the Apple investment, don't
know if it has any additional news but anyhow...:
[http://www.irishtimes.com/business/apple-s-decision-to-
build...](http://www.irishtimes.com/business/apple-s-decision-to-build-in-
fields-of-athenry-is-a-big-win-for-ida-ireland-1.2113919)

