Adding a bit of uncertainty to what exactly Apple is doing up in North Carolina with two (maybe three) datacenters, it's now public on the Apple website that after January 31, 2011, you'll no longer be able to purchase an Apple Xserve. Maybe it's because of the datacenters, that Apple cannot keep their own internal systems online and still sell the servers at retail? Doubtful. Apple is suggesting administrators transition over to either Mac Mini or Mac Pro based servers. Neither of which are particularly rack mount friendly. It's just hard to imagine Apple doing any sort of massive datacenter project and fill it with such inefficiently designed server systems, yet it's equally hard to see an Apple datacenter with Dell or HP systems. I'm sure they have something interesting up their sleeves and maybe will be releasing a new server lineup down the road.

Yesterday and earlier today we talked about the construction going on near Apple's massive 500,000 square foot datacenter, and what seems to be their plans to build an identically massive datacenter in the same 183 acre parcel of land. As it turns out, the fun may not stop there. Digital Daily has uncovered information from the Catawba County Geospatial Information Services, which indicates Apple also owns an slightly smaller yet also large (70 acre) parcel of land just across the street. While this space could be used for anything from an office complex, to what Digital Daily jokes as "using it to build some Jobsian theme park" it could also be used to build a third datacenter full of shiny new XServes. Apple better have some grand plan for their new cloud that is equally as impressive as the real estate and facilities they've been collecting. It is a bit concerning though that they seem to be focusing all their money and energy into the hills of Maiden, North Carolina. While it's totally possible Apple has purchased equally huge tracts of land in other corners of the country (or globe) under the radar of the press, as it stands right now they're putting all their data into one very large set of baskets in Tar Heel Country.

There is a lot of speculation out there pointing that Apple will be using the Thanksgiving holiday to move their iTunes backend over to their new North Carolina datacenter. 148Apps.biz says that Apple will be locking developers out of their iTunes Connect accounts for Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. In typical Apple super-secret fashion it's unknown exactly what this datacenter is being used for. Apple could be locking developers out just because turtle-neck decided that they needed to spend more time with their families. However, as this is Apple's first significant datacenter presence, and it's generally expected to come online by the end of the year, chances are pretty good that the lockout is due to a massive data and routing migration. The 500,000 square foot facility has cost Apple nearly a billion dollars, and they've already begun expanding.

Apple has been building a massive 500,000 square foot datacenter in Maden, North Carolina for the last year or so. Even though this datacenter is not even fully operational, Apple has already started work on another matching facility just behind the recently built one.

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