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A Peek at Apple’s Other Facilities

The iCloud Data Center in North Carolina. Apple’s mysterious offices in Austin and Sacramento. Apple’s international headquarters around the world. Take a look inside dozens of Apple facilities that the tech company doesn’t want you to see.

We’ve seen inside Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. We’ve taken a tour of some of the most incredible Apple Stores, including back-of-house areas that are off-limits to the public. Today Apple Gazette is going to guide you on a trip around the world to all of Apple’s other offices and facilities, including some top-secret locations. The following pictures have been compiled from all over the Internet, and are the property of their respective owners (credits are listed beneath each photo).

iCloud Data Center – Maiden, NC

The Apple Data Center in my home state of North Carolina is one of the most highly-secured facilities Apple owns. This sprawling, state-of-the-art server farm is strictly off limits to the public, and as such, photos of it are hard to come by. We’ll start with the handful of publicity photos Apple itself has released.

A “beauty shot” of the Data Center’s exterior.

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An Apple publicity photo of the inside of the iCloud Data Center.

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Another Apple publicity pic from inside the Data Center in Maiden, NC.

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But what about the people who work there, or visit there on business? How many people work there, anyway? Have any locals managed to get inside?

Well, not many. But I turned up a few. And as for how many people work there, it’s anybody’s guess. But this next photo shows that it’s probably quite a lot.

Spy pic showing employee cubicles inside the Data Center.

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When Steve Jobs died back in 2011, someone placed these flowers on the side of the road beside what looks like the Data Center’s mailbox.

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According to numerous reports, Apple is in various stages of construction on new Data Centers in Newark CA, Prineville OR, Reno NV, Santa Clara CA, and Hong Kong.

Sacramento Operations Center – Elk Grove, CA

Cupertino is not the only place in California where Apple has offices. There’s also a little-known but large Operations Center north of the Bay Area. Its official name indicates it’s in Sacramento, but it’s actually in a Sacramento suburb called Elk Grove. The Sacramento Operations Center was once a manufacturing plant where the “Bondi Blue” iMac G1 was first built, but manufacturing was eventually outsourced overseas (aka, Foxconn) in 2004. Today the facility is used as a warehouse, distribution center, developer support, and support call center.

Outside the Sacramento Operations Center. This photo is labeled “Building D.”

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This one is labeled “Building C.”

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Apparently the Sacramento campus has its own Caffe Macs, just like the Cupertino campus.

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A cubicle at Apple’s Sacramento campus.

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What looks like an office at Apple’s Sacramento campus.

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This happens even at Apple.

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What? It’s just your standard treadmill + workstation.

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I love that Apple is so consistent, they actually use their standard company font for their road signs. It’s the little things.

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This one is labeled the “Apple Summer Beer Bash.” Looks like the cafeteria, maybe? Or some kind of meeting room/theater.

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Austin Operations Center – Austin, TX

Similar to the Sacramento facility, this Operations Center has lots of support staff that augments the Cupertino office. One thing it has that the Sacramento office doesn’t is an R&D (research and development) department. It’s unknown exactly what products or services are worked on at Apple Austin. The city of Austin recently approved plans for additional buildings on this campus that will eventually equal one million square feet.

The front entrance at the Austin Operations Center.

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A fountain in front of the main building.

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This pic is labeled as the outside of “Building 4.”

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A wide view at night from the employee parking lot.

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The only photo I could find from inside the Austin campus is this room with audio equipment.

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Apple has annual “corporate games” for employees that take place on campus. Looks like the Austin campus does, too.

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Apple Europe HQ – Cork, Ireland

Apple’s base of operations for all of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East is located in Cork, Ireland. “Apple Europe Limited,” as it’s formally called, appears to be, based on my limited knowledge, charged with overseeing Apple’s interests overseas, including individual international offices, retail stores, corporate partners, etc. “Apple Sales International” and “Apple Distribution International” are both based here.

The main entrance at Apple Europe in Cork, Ireland.

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Appears to be the same entrance as the prior photo, only with a red coat of paint on the driveway awning.

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This long, glass-covered section extends off to the left of the main entrance shown above.

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An Irish politician visits Apple Europe and gets a tour of what looks like an enormous lab or manufacturing floor.

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The requisite “cubicles” shot, from Apple Europe in Cork, Ireland.

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A rather sparsely-populated office space.

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Let it snow!

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How they celebrate Black Friday at Apple Europe.

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The on-site employes-only gym.

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Inside the gym. Note the upper windows, where employees can watch the action on the court.

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This executive briefing suite, used for serving corporate partners, looked like this circa 2007. It may look completely different today.

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A giant “iTunes Cube.” Purely decorative? Your guess is as good as mine.

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International Offices

Presented in gallery form, here’s a collection of images I turned up showing off the small office spaces used by Apple internationally. They come in all sizes; most are little more than a collection of rented rooms in a larger office building, though at least one (Singapore) boasts a very large building all its own.

I assumed this meant that “Apple Asia Limited,” aka Apple’s base of operations for all of Asia, is located in Singapore. But I found conflicting reports suggesting that Apple Asia is located either in Singapore or Hong Kong. Can any of our readers clear this up?

In addition to the offices depicted above, I also found evidence of Apple corporate offices in Austria (Österreich), Bulgaria, Denmark (Copenhagen), Italy (Milano), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Poland (Warsaw), South Korea (Seoul), Taiwan (Taipei), and Turkey. But thus far, I’ve been unable to turn up any photos of these offices. A Google Maps search of the Taiwan office’s street address didn’t reveal Apple’s office building, but there is a large Foxconn office building there. Most of the international offices are put in place preceding the opening of a new Apple retail store(s) in that country, so many of the countries I just listed could be getting their own Apple Store in the near future. Though there are other reasons for Apple to have corporate offices in a given country, such as partner relations.

Along with all these international offices, Apple is also planning to build and open a brand new R&D Center in Shanghai sometime in the next few years.

Posted by on February 15, 2013
1 Comment

Comments

  1. Patrick says:
    February 16, 2013 at 3:41 pm

    Just drove by the Apple offices in Austin. As you mentioned, they’re adding on – I saw the construction going strong this morning. It’s Saturday (2/16), so they must be in a hurry to get this done.

    Reply

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