Friday, July 14, 2017

Apple Builds its first Data Center in Guizhou, China

Apple Inc on Wednesday (12 Jul 2017) announced that they are going to build its first data center in China, in partnership with a local internet services company, to comply with tougher cyber-security laws introduced last month.




The critical facilities will set up in Guizhou with the help of Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry Co. Ltd., and represents a portion of Apple's planned $1 billion investment into the province.

"The addition of this data center will allow us to improve the speed and reliability of our products and services while also complying with newly passed regulations," Apple said in a prepared statement. "These regulations require cloud services be operated by Chinese companies so we're partnering with GCBD to offer iCloud."

In April, China also announced a law requiring businesses transferring over 1,000 gigabytes of data outside China to undergo yearly security reviews, with potential blocks on exporting economic, technological and scientific data.

Apple was quick to note that its data protection protocols, viewed by some as the industry standard, will not be impacted by China's laws. The authorities also said the law is not designed to put foreign firms at a disadvantage and is drafted in reaction to the threat of cyber attacks and terrorism.

"No backdoors will be created into any of our systems," Apple said. The comment seemingly addresses fears that Chinese government agencies might use the cybersecurity law as an invitation to engage in snooping activities.


Earlier this week, Apple said it planned to open a new data center in Denmark. An earlier center in the country, announced in 2015, will come online this year.

Other foreign firms that oversee cloud businesses, including Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp, already have data centers in China.



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