Storage Bits

Robin Harris
Home / News & Blogs / Storage Bits

What is Apple's huge data warehouse for?

By | June 6, 2011, 1:44pm PDT

Why is Steve Jobs standing in front a huge data warehouse just weeks after patching a big privacy hole in iOS?

Steve Jobs’ morning keynote at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference included some shots of the new North Carolina data center - including this one:

Photo courtesy of Macworld

Photo courtesy of Macworld


These are Teradata data warehouse systems: massive, high-performance storage systems sold to enable:

. . . the analytical performance you need . . . to intelligently process all types of analytical and business intelligence queries.

Translation: they aren’t storing your music.

How massive?
There are a couple of Teradata products that use this rack. The larger one, the Extreme Data Appliance is expandable to over 4,000 nodes and over 180,000 TB of capacity. In the picture it looks like there are at least 28 racks with a fully configured capacity of over 8,000 TB.

That’s just one row of machines.

Geospatial services
Another feature of the Teradata database:

Geospatial analysis: Built-in geospatial functions and analysis allow geospatial relationships (e.g., distance, within an area or territory) to be used with other business factors and all of the data in the data warehouse.

Very handy for the location aware services that iCloud provides. And valuable for retailers and manufacturers who want deep insight into their customer’s buying habits and geographical spread.

The Storage Bits take
There’s more to the Apple data center story than we know today. Teradata is the industry standard for large data warehouses and they aren’t cheap.

Seeing a large, commodity-based, cluster storage system would not have surprised me. After all, that’s what Google and Amazon use.

But Apple - as usual - is charting a different course. The iCloud service may be free, but Apple is positioned to make good money from it by selling data on user behavior to others.

This doesn’t mean you need to fear that your privacy will be compromised by iOS 5. But until we know how Apple anonymizes these massive data streams, the fear can - and should - remain.

Comments welcome, of course. $30 for the next version of Mac OS X? Redmond - start your copiers!

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

More from “Storage Bits”

Topics

Data Warehouse, Teradata, Apple Inc., Data Centers, Business Intelligence, Storage, It infrastructure, Databases, Applie iOS, Hardware, Data Management, Enterprise Software, Software, Robin Harris

Robin Harris has been messing with computers for over 30 years and selling and marketing data storage for over 20 in companies large and small.

Disclosure

Robin Harris

Robin Harris is a president of TechnoQWAN, a consulting and analyst firm in northern Arizona. He also writes StorageMojo.com, a blog which accepts advertising from companies in the storage industry, and has a 25 year history with IT vendors. He has many industry contacts, many of whom are friends and all of whom he has opinions about. Robin has relationships with many companies in the technology industry. Every company he writes about may have sought to influence his opinion through carefully-crafted marketing messages and self-serving white papers, gifts ranging from desk calendars, t-shirts, lunches and trips as well as analyst or consulting assignments. He also invests in some technology companies. He may accept payment for services in stock as well. Robin discloses financial investments in or client relationships with companies named in Storage Bits. To help readers sort out the gold from the dross in his writings, Robin tries to communicate his reasons as clearly as he can. If you agree, you are intelligent and discerning. If you disagree, well, you disagree. In all cases, Robin encourages readers to subject everything they read, see or hear on the internet or from politicians to some simple questions: * What assumptions are implicit in the world view and judgments of the author? * What, if any, is the factual basis for the opinions the author expresses? * Is it reasonable, logical and clear? Your critical faculties: use ‘em or lose ‘em!

Biography

Robin Harris

Harris has been messing with computers for over 30 years and selling and marketing data storage for over 20 in companies large and small. He introduced a couple of multi-billion dollar storage products (DLT, the first Fibre Channel array) to market, as well as a many smaller ones. Earlier he spent 10 years marketing servers and networks. After leaving corporate life he founded TechnoQWAN, a consulting and analyst firm. He also developed StorageMojo into one of the top storage industry blogs.

Robin writes, consults, coaches and lives among the mountains of northern Arizona.

Related Discussions on TechRepublic

Did you know you can take part in these discussions with your ZDNet membership?
Ask a Question Start a Discussion
32
Comments
Add Your Opinion

Join the conversation!

Just In

RE: What is Apple's huge data warehouse for?
FAULKNE 13th Oct
Good day to confirm this comment I would appreciate T h e b e s t o f Z D N e t d e l i v e r e d your website very nice to everyone Yes, Oracle is the only one with shared-disk architecture, but that is there advantage. It means you can add or remove nodes and the database lives on. In a shared nothing architecture, if you lose a node, you lose the system. I'm sure Oracle appreciates EMC highlighting their advantage.I also desire to signal in your RSS feeds. Thank you as soon as once again and maintain up the great operate Awesome post! Thank you very much || thanks for nice content this is really benefit to me.
View in thread
0 Votes
+ -
RE: What is Apple's huge data warehouse for?
owlnet 6th Jun
This is a joke... only 28 racks ?????
If Ballmer were were to stand beside all his racks, it would be more than 28,000...
0 Votes
+ -
Nice trolling
use_what_works_4_U 7th Jun
@owlnet
but you don't honestly think that one photo of one room shows the entirety of Apple's data center do you?
0 Votes
+ -
It is all just camera perspective
noagenda 6th Jun
Those are 12"x12" tiles on the floor happy
0 Votes
+ -
he's tanding in front of a projected image.
doctorSpoc 7th Jun
@noagenda ..not a pict of him in the facility..
0 Votes
+ -
Come on it's simple
Will Pharaoh Updated - 6th Jun
the analytical performance you need . . . to intelligently process all types of analytical and business intelligence queries.

And your songs, buying habits, anything Apple related will be stored and queried through this, all for Apple's business purposes.

And you're right, its just one row of machines.

Any idea what the other rows look like? Chances are they look like Google's data center, I can see why Jobs would take this row of machines to show off - they "look cool", i.e. Apple=Stylish

If they showed the rest of the systems, the ones storing music and data what would go through people's head?

They wouldn't be equating Apple with stylish, that's for sure.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: What is Apple's huge data warehouse for?
Robin Harris 6th Jun
@Will Pharaoh
There was a report that Apple also bought several petabytes of Isilon's cluster storage. Isilon makes scalable NAS storage that would make sense for music.

But you don't need 500,000 sq ft for that either.
0 Votes
+ -
Many companies in Apple's current position plan for the future.
Mister Spock 6th Jun
@Robin Harris
Right now Apple has the cash on hand to purchase more then they currently need.

It is less expensive the the alternative, that being having to build a second datacenter, then addind the infrastructure to connect them all in the future.
0 Votes
+ -
While I agree
oncall 6th Jun
Apple is postioning itself for a strong "data farming" business that seems like a radical departure from it's usual core business. IMHO it is a "distinguishing feature" of Apple in that it is not in the data farming business.
0 Votes
+ -
I'm reminded of an Alanis Morissette song...
UrNotPayingAttention Updated - 6th Jun
Isn't it Ironic, don't ya think?

The same people that wanted you to think differently, and released a 1984 commercial against '1984'...

Now, want everyone to own the same exact device, they want to house everyone's data, and warehouse and mart everyone's behavior.

...and yeah, I really do think...
0 Votes
+ -
RE: What is Apple's huge data warehouse for?
justinkearney 7th Jun
Geospacial analysis. Makes me think that Apple will be using that location data they have been capturing to provide Google like directed advertising to their customers. They know everything about their customers already so it is a good move to make millions of dollars in ad revenue.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: What is Apple's huge data warehouse for?
Robin Harris Updated - 7th Jun
@justinkearney
Maybe. But Jobs didn't seem too keen on advertising during the keynote yesterday. Apple historically keeps advertising other people's stuff to a minimum: no crapware; no stickers; no Intel Inside.

App makers might buy the info. That would make sense. OTOH, iAd could use a boost and this would turbocharge it.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: What is Apple's huge data warehouse for?
Gr8Music 7th Jun
Online gaming
0 Votes
+ -
RE: What is Apple's huge data warehouse for?
Silex 7th Jun
Is it me or none of these machines are Macs ?
0 Votes
+ -
RE: What is Apple's huge data warehouse for?
wjameskirk 7th Jun
@Silex Of course none of these machines are Macs!
0 Votes
+ -
Umm, we're talking hundreds of millions of users ...
jscott69 7th Jun
... you need serious computing horsepower to do ANYTHING on that scale. Obviously, Apple needs clusters for storing data ... but there's a lot of business-like logic that needs to go along with things, too, to keep things humming along for those hundreds of millions of users. Heck, even just authentication is a big enough job at that level. Plus there's keeping track of your purchases and history, pushing out the data, maybe even some of the geo-fence computations for oh-so-important reminders to pick up milk after you leave work.

And, no doubt Apple picked a photo of the serious hardware to show that they've implemented serious infrastructure to handle their service. If they showed a shot of cobbled-together storage systems, they might not instill as much confidence.

Besides, it's a well accepted practice to buy the biggest, best servers you can afford when you do a project now, because they need to last as long as possible. It just so happens that Apple can afford some really awesome equipment. Wouldn't you buy those things if you could?

To me, any concerns over Apple using top-of-the-line hardware is just FUD -- folks are looking for some kind of conspiracy plot.

Folks this is pretty simple: Apple wants to sell hardware -- iPhones, iPads, iPods and Macs. Apple has always said that by tightly controlling both the hardware and the software, they can make a better mousetrap. iCloud is just the newest piece of that puzzle, but really, it's just a big extension of iOS and OS X. And judging by how people are voting with their wallets, Apple's strategy is making sense to several million consumers. So, investing a billion or so in a data center is a great investment if it helps attract $20 billion in new hardware sales. It's a cost of business. A means to an end.

BTW, Apple owns more land adjacent to this data center, and is apparently all set to build a mirror of it on that land. So the Teradata and Isilon folks should be thrilled!
0 Votes
+ -
Apple's getting ready for the future, and, it's a future that's not
adornoe@... Updated - 7th Jun
solely dependent upon the mobile gadgets which have brought them to being the wealthiest IT company.

They know that, with more and more competition in the mobile market, that they need to branch out and become more than just the "cool gadgets" company.

With iCloud getting underway, I predict iSearch within one or two years. Those applications required a lot of storage, and hence, the massive warehouse systems.

BTW, I predicted iCloud (not exactly with that name), when Apple first announced what the iPad's capabilities were going to be more than a year ago, and before they became available for sale. A "storage-less" gadget would guarantee that the gadget maker would need to provide a cloud solution for storage.
0 Votes
+ -
OMG, it's a a DATABASE
gkpm 7th Jun
Hey guess what ZDNet is also running a database system capable of geospatial analysis - you know like Oracle, Mysql, PostgreSQL, DB2, any major database really - and able to "intelligently process all types of analytical and business intelligence queries."

Maybe we should be afraid of ZDNet?
0 Votes
+ -
Are you smart enough to detect a difference between ZDNet and cloud
adornoe@... 7th Jun
computing and/or cloud storage, as being implemented by Apple and Microsoft and others?

Hint: People's personal data is not store on ZDNet (other than Ids), and people do not depend upon ZDNet for application data. Furthermore, ZDNet is redundant, in that, whatever services it provides, are also provided by many other similar websites.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: What is Apple's huge data warehouse for?
Jesster 7th Jun
A facility like that is not even pocket change for Apple. They have somewhere around $65 billion in cash.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: What is Apple's huge data warehouse for?
zackers 8th Jun
@Jesster Sure, it was no problem for them to finance it, but it still costs a lot of money to build and operate. They have to make back that money somehow. Businesses don't intentionally throw that kind of money down a rathole.
0 Votes
+ -
Reinvention of the diskless workstation?
gtoal@... 8th Jun
My guess - the next Ipad - or even Mac - OS will have *all* its data stored in the cloud - there will be no local filing system at all, and the actual local storage will only be there as a transparent cache for what's in the cloud. It's time for Evans & Sutherland's wheel of reincarnation to turn around again to 'diskless workstations'. An idea that comes in and out of favor every 10 years like clockwork. This time it comes with the advantage of vendor lock-in.

G
0 Votes
+ -
Obviously
ego.sum.stig@... 8th Jun
They need such a huge data center, to cater for recording for posterity the voluminous and luminous blogging of zdnet's inestimable Ed Bott (and the rest too). Why else would it exist?

That being said, has any of the zdnet luminaries bothered asking Apple or some Apple customers (who we know really don't exist, because they use Linux or "shock horror" Windows and only pretend to use anything else). But ask they should!!
0 Votes
+ -
President "Non-Elect For Life" Hu...
Feldwebel Wolfenstool 13th Jun
....wants your intellectual property. An Apple is going to give China the opportunity.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: What is Apple's huge data warehouse for?
MACKENZI 10th Sep
I also desire to signal in your RSS feeds. Thank you as soon as once again and maintain up the great operate! nccma cooler
0 Votes
+ -
RE: What is Apple's huge data warehouse for?
MARAGARET 11th Sep
I used to be more than happy to seek out this internet-site.I wanted to thanks in your time for this glorious read!! I positively enjoying each little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you weblog post. this thread is amazing i like your work and i appreciate you that you have share a useful stuff thanks for sharing the i shop abatwa
0 Votes
+ -
RE: What is Apple's huge data warehouse for?
RHIANNONA 13th Sep
I used to be more than happy to seek out this internet-site.I wanted to thanks in your time for this glorious read!! I positively enjoying each little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you weblog post.Bookmarking now thanks please consider a follow up post. power sa shop
0 Votes
+ -
RE: What is Apple's huge data warehouse for?
SATURNINA 13th Sep
I think the representation of this article is actually superb one. This is my first visit to your site. Thanks a lot and keep sharing the information. Keep updating the information for all of us. Thanks ZDNet Government was launched as the brand's first industry vertical, with a mission to cater to IT professionals in the public secto I agree with your post. However, do you have any sources I can cite for my paper wheel car com bury
0 Votes
+ -
RE: What is Apple's huge data warehouse for?
TOCCAR 25th Sep
Well welcome, hopefully you can become a vital member of the community and really help to push far ahead of google. Which Im sure the development team would love. This will of course earn you alot points too and get you on the leaders board. z d n e t t h a n k Im not sure i come to an agreement with you on every level, howevor it absolutely was a good posting, many thanks for taking the time to put up your ideas.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: What is Apple's huge data warehouse for?
CLAUDET 26th Sep
This is my first visit to z d n e t site. Thanks a lot and keep sharing the information. Keep updating the information for all of us.how can i clean up, because i don???t know why it seems my skeen has to fat i get the glasses dirty every day.i search y a h o o Very good quality indeed. I surely recommend it. The template used in their site is also great.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: What is Apple's huge data warehouse for?
MEJIAHA 30th Sep
Fantastic news about the new release.I positively enjoying each little bit of it and I have you b o o k m a r k e d to check out new stuff you weblog post.Im not sure i come to an agreement with you on every level, howevor it absolutely was a good posting, many thanks for taking the time to put up your ideas
0 Votes
+ -
RE: What is Apple's huge data warehouse for?
soskert 10th Oct
I agree with justin. Everyone is cashing in on stalking their customers these days. Google is leading the trend, closely followed by facebook with their ever active cookies and we all knew apple was hiding in the shadows. Next ipod with ads??
sam - seo tips
0 Votes
+ -
RE: What is Apple's huge data warehouse for?
FAULKNE 13th Oct
Good day to confirm this comment I would appreciate T h e b e s t o f Z D N e t d e l i v e r e d your website very nice to everyone Yes, Oracle is the only one with shared-disk architecture, but that is there advantage. It means you can add or remove nodes and the database lives on. In a shared nothing architecture, if you lose a node, you lose the system. I'm sure Oracle appreciates EMC highlighting their advantage.I also desire to signal in your RSS feeds. Thank you as soon as once again and maintain up the great operate Awesome post! Thank you very much || thanks for nice content this is really benefit to me.

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

Blog Roll

Blog Archive

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix