Apple will be setting up a new data center in China in accordance with the new cybersecurity law introduced in June. The data center will be in partnership with local Internet service and data management firm Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry and will be built in the southern province of Guizhou.
The data center will be part of a $1 billion investment. Apple hopes that by building this data center they will be able to offer more storage for their consumers as well as improve the efficiency of their products. “The addition of this data centre will allow us to improve the speed and reliability of our products and services while also complying with newly passed regulations. These regulations require cloud services be operated by Chinese companies so we’re partnering with GCBD to offer iCloud.” Apple has had problems protecting the data of their customers in China, in June there was an incident in China where the personal data of an unspecified amount of amount of Apple customers to hackers and scammers.
Apple hopes that this new data center will increase the security of their consumers and prevent further incidents from happening again. Apple is the first technology company to create amendments to their data storage arrangements due to the new cybersecurity law requiring foreign companies to store their data in the country. Other foreign companies such Microsoft and Amazon will also need to comply with these new laws. The purpose of foreign companies having to store their data in China as part of the new cybersecurity law is to prevent any hacking, stealing, cyber attacks, and terrorism attempts.
The data center also prevents any illegal software from entering China, and businesses overseas have been very observant of China’s requirements and some have stated that the law and the requirements are overly vague and burden companies with consequences and risks if they do not comply. Understanding the uneasiness of the other companies to store their data in China, Apple has assured companies that there will be no backdoors or leaks in any of their systems, and will even be building a second data center in Denmark that will run entirely on renewable energy. Apple hopes that with the cooperation of foreign businesses with China’s new cybersecurity law they can form new partnerships with China, and Apple will be able to create new data centers in other foreign countries.
Featured Image via Wikimedia Commons
