The construction work of Chinese data centre for the US tech giant, Apple Inc, will begin later this year and it is expected to open by 2020, sources close to the project has said.
The communications administration of southwest China’s Guizhou Province, where the centre will be built, provided the timetable.
With an investment of USD 1 billion, the data centre will cover 67 hectares in Guian New Area and it will offer iCloud services on the Chinese mainland. Starting February 28, iCloud services on the Chinese mainland will be operated by a local partner, Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry Co, Ltd.
Before the data centre begins operations, the Chinese company will rent servers from China’s three major telecom operators to provide iCloud services, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported today.
Guizhou is one of the least developed regions in China, but it has become a pioneer in big data in China due to its climate, power supply and network infrastructure.