Apple expands Internet infrastructure

data centre in Silicon Valley, as it prepares to bring additional server and storage capacity online later this year, reports Data Center Knowledge.

The new server space, housed in a third-party facility, will be smaller than the huge iDataCenter that Apple has built in North Carolina.

The new data centre will provide additional IT capacity at a time when Apple is rumoured to be developing new cloud computing services delivering streaming media, which could include music, video and file storage. Apple has reportedly acquired the domain name iCloud.com for use with a new service.

The Santa Clara, California-based data centre is being built by data centre company DuPont Fabros Technology near the San Jose International Airport, according to Forbes.

Apple signed a seven-year deal for 2.28 megawatts of critical power load in the data centre. While the data centre is huge, it's dwarfed by Apple's North Carolina facility.

Apple's other $1 billion server farm in North Carolina has been in the works for some time now, as the company first selected the site in mid-2009, writes Apple Insider.

The iPhone maker originally expected to open the facility by the end of 2010, but said at its annual investors meeting this year that the facility will go online this spring.

Apple executives also confirmed that the facility, with 500 000 total square feet of space, will support iTunes and MobileMe.

The anticipated 'iCloud' product is expected to be a successor to MobileMe and could be largely driven by Apple's data centres set to begin operation in the coming months.