Apple has announced that it will open two new data centers in Europe for the first time. The tech giant will invest $2 billion in a data center endeavor, which, according to many experts, was taken after the massive demands from Europe to secure the data of iCloud, iTunes and other software services.
US companies are facing regulatory problems from Europe after Edward Snowden, the whistle-blower from the US intelligence services claimed that the US government is spying the Europe through its tech companies. Amazon also launched its native data center for Europe.
Apple will host iTunes, iCloud, software data and other services in its European data centers for the native users. The data centers will go live in 2017. Denmark and Ireland are chosen as the place for data centers. Ireland will be the headquarters of Apple operations now.
US tech companies have faced heavy fines in Europe due to regulatory issues. According to European laws, if a company is found to be guilty of not adhering to strict rules regarding user data privacy, fines are implemented, which can go up to $114 million. Apple used to sign a plethora of contracts, agreements, regulatory documents to host data of its European customers in its servers in the US. Opening data centers in Europe will relieve Apple of these daunting tasks. But this relaxation comes at $2 billion initial cost with continuous expenses in its European data centers from 2017.
EU accused Apple of some illegal tax arrangements with Irish government a few months back, but both parties rejected this claim.