18 months ago the company Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), announces that it intends to build a data center in Ireland to improve the experience of Europeans who use its online services. We are talking about a data center that will substantially reduce data access times from iCloud, AppStore, iTunes Store, Siri and other online services of the Apple company.
Although in August Apple received the approval of the Irish authorities, the country in which the data center will be built, to start setting up the location, three local residents filed an appeal against the decision of the local council. This appeal is to be judged by a court in Ireland because people do not want that data center to be built in the vicinity of their homes.
The court accepted Apple's request to postpone the trial, and on November 7 the first court session will take place, but a local tries to prove that the opinion of the 3 is a minority. According to him, most of the locals, from the area where the data center will be built, are happy that Apple will invest in the area and create many jobs.
In this idea, he organizes a march in support of Apple's initiative to build this data center and asks the locals who support the project to join him. Ireland is the country from which Apple coordinates all its European business and where all the money generated in Europe ends up, so there are very strong ties with the community there.
In a bid to show that the wider Athenry community is in support of Apple's plans, local residents are planning a march through the town center this Sunday. Many of them are deeply upset that Apple's data center is facing ongoing delays and some of them are concerned that Apple will abandon its plans altogether if it's held up much longer.
How successful the opponents of the project will be in blocking the initiation of construction is hard to say, but we will find out next week if it will continue or not.
