Apple reportedly expanding global data center presence with new facility in Curacao

By Neil Hughes

Apple's latest data center project may be on the small southern Caribbean island of Curacao, as local media suggests the iCloud operator may be taking over a facility where construction is nearly complete.

A Dutch news report spotted by AmongTech claims that the Unique Infrastructure Group is building a new data center on Curacao for Apple. According to the report, the facility is already almost completed, but the original company behind it went bankrupt and was taken over by UIG.

UIG is now said to be completing work on the facility, which will reportedly be used by Apple. While it's unknown what Apple would use the facility for, the company's iCloud and iTunes digital operations are likely candidates.

After building major data center operations in the U.S, including massive facilities on both the east and west coast, Apple now appears to be expanding its operations internationally. Earlier this year, it was said that the company was planning a new data center in the Netherlands to better serve customers in Europe.


Racks of Apple's iCloud servers in Maiden, NC

And this week, Apple confirmed that it has begun storing iCloud user data in data centers owned by China Telecom. Given the fact that China Telecom is owned by the Chinese government, which itself is notoriously invasive, Apple spoke out on the partnership to ensure that the data on the servers is secure.

"Apple takes user security and privacy very seriously," the company said in a statement. "We have added China Telecom to our list of data center providers to increase bandwidth and improve performance for our customers in mainland China. All data stored with our providers is encrypted, China Telecom does not have access to the content."