Apple's Secret Data Center Strategy

from the think-different dept

With all the excitement over the iPad announcement, Steve Jobs may be distracting everyone (like the magician he is) from noticing Apple's long-term strategy of quietly building cloud services. Apple can't hide its billion dollar investment in a data center in North Carolina. But Apple has certainly somehow made everyone forget about its MobileMe services and the possibilities of Apple creating a growing number of subscription services.

The iPad will help drive Apple towards offering more cloud services, given that the device has limited storage and processing capabilities. Basically, the iPad will put a nice little thin client in the average consumer's hands. The "network is the computer" may live on as a tablet device. Who would have thought that? And Apple might not be alone. There's been some speculation that Google will release an Chrome OS tablet to offer a "big NexusOne" of its own -- using its Chrome OS (instead of Android) in order to take advantage of Chrome's security and minimal hardware requirements.

Behind the scenes, Oracle databases are supporting iTunes, iBooks and presumably more and more of Apple's subscription content services (and possible future web apps). So while Apple shows off flashy new devices, its data center plans are steadily expanding without much notice.