Apple has announced that it is to spend €1.7 Billion constructing two new data centres in Europe.
The new sites, which will be located in Ireland and Denmark, will be used to power Apple’s online services across Europe. These will include the iTunes Store, the App Store, iMessage, Apple Maps, and the Siri personal assistant.
Perhaps the most notable feature of these new European data centres is the fact that they will be powered by 100 percent renewable energy. The new data centres should be up and running some time in 2017.
Apple CEO Time Cook said that “we are grateful for Apple’s continued success in Europe and proud that our investment supports communities across the continent,” before calling the construction project “Apple’s biggest project in Europe to date.”
The cynical among you might suggest that this new project is suspiciously timed and targeted given the recent controversy surrounding the company’s European tax arrangements.
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The official statement relating to this data centre project repeatedly
mentions the good that Apple is doing in Europe, including the 672,000
European jobs that it supports – although the vast majority of those
(530,000 to be precise) relate to iOS app development.
The statement also mentions the 18,300 people it employs across 19 European countries, as well as the €7.8 billion it spent with European companies in 2014.
Why, it almost reads like an opening statement for the defence in a court case. Almost.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
