Edible Apple

With the recent hire of Kevin Timmons, Apple’s Data Center plans appear to be moving ahead at full steam. DataCenterKnowledge reports that Apple recently wooed away Kevin Timmons from Microsoft where he had worked on Redmond’s global cloud computing operation for less than two years. Timmons had previously spent over 10 years at Geocities/Yahoo. The hire suggests that Apple is ramping up plans to get its Data Center in North Carolina, and perhaps in other locations, underway.

While Microsoft made no mention of Timmon’s new home, a Microsoft spokesman explained that he left to “pursue other career opportunities.” Industry sources subsequently brought to light that Timmons was heading to Apple, though not to replace Olivier Sanche who passed away suddenly last November and whose position has already been filled.

As is typically the case with Apple hires, there’s scant information as to what Timmons’ job duties will include, but TImmons’ past expertise in cloud computing might shed some light on his role at Apple.

Timmons is highly regarded or his ability to build scalable data centers while simultaneously streamlining costs..

At Microsoft, Timmons oversaw the deployment of massive new data centers in Dublin and Chicago shortly after his arrival in mid-2009, but then moved to streamline the company’s data center design and cost structure. Timmons said his goal is for Microsoft’s data center network to be “incredibly scalable at awesome cost effectiveness,” and said his team was on target to slash data center costs by 50 percent.

Before joining Microsoft, Timmons worked at Yahoo where he was VP of operations and “oversaw the build-out of their data centers and infrastructure.”

DCK relays a quote from Timmons he gave at a March 2010 presentation at DataCenterDynamics New York (yes, they have conferences for everything these days) that makes it seem as if Timmons is just the kind of free thinking and intuitive guy that Apple looks for.

“Challenge everything you know about a traditional data center,” Timmons said. “From the walls to the roof to where it needs to be built, challenge everything.”