New photos show depths of Apple's expanding Mesa, Ariz. data center

Photos shot this week show the seldom-seen interior of Apple's two-year-old data center in Mesa, Ariz., instrumental to services like iCloud, Siri, and iMessage.

The facility added several halls' worth of servers in April, the Arizona Republic said on Wednesday, noting that Apple is generally cautious about sharing building details because of security concerns. It nevertheless acknowledged that the center's "global data command" is staffed by a handful of people who work in 10-hour shifts.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey was also planning to stop by the complex on Wednesday, claiming the jobs created by the center as a political victory. Ducey is campaigning for a second term.

Image Credit: Tom Tingle/The Republic

The facility began its life under the aegis of First Solar, which said it was aiming for 600 workers. It was never fully occupied at the time however, and was subsequently taken over by sapphire supplier GT Advanced Technologies.

Apple contracted GT to supply sapphire for some of its devices, wanting to use the material because it's typically more durable than even Corning's Gorilla Glass, found on any modern iPhone. GT was unable to meet Apple's demands, which led to it filing a surprise bankruptcy and Apple repurposing the complex. The two companies reached a mutual agreement to settle $439 million in debt, but not until they had exchanged barbs over who was to blame.

Image Credit: Tom Tingle/The Republic

The repurposing process has taken several years, the Republic said. The company has promised to invest $2 billion over the course of a decade. Offsetting the intense power demands of the center is a solar plant in nearby Florence, spanning some 300 acres.

20 Comments

randominternetperson 3095 comments · 8 Years

About 6 years ago

AppleInsider said:

The facility added several halls' worth of servers in April, the Arizona Republic said on Wednesday, noting that Apple is generally cautious about sharing building details because of security concerns. It nevertheless acknowledged that the center's "global data command" is staffed by a handful of people who work in 10-hour shifts.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey was also planning to stop by the complex on Wednesday, claiming the jobs created by the center as a political victory. Ducey is campaigning for a second term.

Nice juxtaposition. Presumably a lot of labor was involved in building the data center, but long-term jobs? Not so much.

volcan 1799 comments · 10 Years

About 6 years ago

randominternetperson said:

Presumably a lot of labor was involved in building the data center, but long-term jobs? Not so much.

Based on my experience with data centers, servers, routers, switches, firewalls, electrical upgrades, UPS batteries and software have at most about a 3-4 year lifespan. Not that they couldn't last maybe 10 years but the technology becomes obsolete very quickly. So fairly soon an ongoing replacement cycle will begin which involves many more people than just a couple technicians sitting in the NOC watching a green LED flash. When they say "staffed" by a handful of people I don't think they are counting the numerous contractors that are constantly on site doing maintenance and upgrades to the building mechanicals. Even with a relatively small data center, the parking lot is usually full during the day.

bobolicious 1172 comments · 10 Years

About 6 years ago

...indeed how many jobs might data centers be eliminating as well...? In Apple we (at least many, and for now) trust...

lkrupp 10521 comments · 19 Years

About 6 years ago

volcan said:

randominternetperson said:

Presumably a lot of labor was involved in building the data center, but long-term jobs? Not so much.

Based on my experience with data centers, servers, routers, switches, firewalls, electrical upgrades, UPS batteries and software have at most about a 3-4 year lifespan. Not that they couldn't last maybe 10 years but the technology becomes obsolete very quickly. So fairly soon an ongoing replacement cycle will begin which involves many more people than just a couple technicians sitting in the NOC watching a green LED flash. When they say "staffed" by a handful of people I don't think they are counting the numerous contractors that are constantly on site doing maintenance and upgrades to the building mechanicals. Even with a relatively small data center, the parking lot is usually full during the day.

bobolicious said:

...indeed how many jobs might data centers be eliminating as well...? In Apple we (at least many, and for now) trust...

Socialists and their tears and lamentations about jobs. As the old Soviet era saying went, “We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.” The invention of the wheel put a lot of slaves out of work too I suspect. So did the steam engine, and the cotton gin, and the combine, and every other major invention that replaced or enhanced manual labor. Now we have robots and AI to build our gadgets and toys, and self-supporting data centers. So the socialists would tear down the data centers and hire millions of humans to write everything down on paper just so they’ll have a job?