Apple's New Executive for NC Data Center Comes from Microsoft

Last November, Data Center Knowledge wrote on its website that Apple (News - Alert) intends to invest more than $1 billion over the next 10 years on its 183-acre data center campus in Maiden, N.C. The company has completed construction of a 505,000 square foot facility that ranks as one of the world’s largest data centers. Early this month, TMCet.com reported that Apple has ordered 12 Petabytes of storage capacity from Isilon Systems. And the online tech publication The Register speculated that the vast amount of storage is destined for Apple’s North Carolina data center, which will be the home to new cloud-based storage options for iTunes, as well as for social networking integration for iPhone and MobileMe services.

To get this center up and running, Apple has hired a new manager. And that person comes from Microsoft (News - Alert). Kevin Timmons, who led Microsoft's data center business for the last two years, has joined Apple, reports Data Center Knowledge. Microsoft confirmed to Data Center Knowledge that Timmons has left the company, and sources say that he will join Apple shortly.

According to Data Center Knowledge, the move strongly hints that Apple is stepping up its plans for an expansion of its data center infrastructure beyond its huge new facility in North Carolina.

In confirming Timmons’ departure, Dayne Sampson, CVP of Global Foundation Services, Microsoft, said, “Kevin Timmons, general manager of Datacenter Services, has decided to pursue other career opportunities and is no longer working at Microsoft. We appreciate the contributions he made to Microsoft during his time here.”

An industry source Dave Ohara, who has contacts at Microsoft and Apple from his time working at both companies, wrote on his blog, “The position Kevin is going to fill is not known and is not the position vacated by the departed Olivier Sanche.”

“Olivier’s position has been filled by another data center operations executive,” added Ohara. Microsoft’s top data center executive, Olivier Sanche, passed away suddenly last November, wrote Data Center Knowledge.

Meanwhile, analysts at Jeffries & Co are speculating more data centers in the U.S. and Europe and plans are gaining momentum.

Timmons brief bio presented by Data Center Knowledge shows that he joined Microsoft in June, 2009. Before Microsoft, Timmons was vice president of operations at Yahoo. Prior to that he was a director of operations at GeoCities, and also served as a senior software engineer at Marconi Dynamics.