Popular electronics brand Apple Inc. announced Wednesday its plans to open its first Data Center in China. In order to build the data center, the company will partner with a local Internet company. The move was decided to comply with the country's new strict cyber security rules.

The center will be built in Guizhou, in the southern part of the province with the help of the Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry Co. Ltd (GCBD), according to Reuters. Apple plans to invest a total of $1 billion in the said province.

China data center

According to Apple, the data center will drastically increase the speed and reliability of the products they offer in the area.

At the same time, it will allow the US-based company to comply with stricter rules and regulations when it comes to cyber security in the country.

The regulations say that the cloud services should be held and operated by local companies. This is the reason why Apple decided to merge with GCBD when it comes to operations in China. This move will allow the company to offer the iCloud services in the country, which will not be possible without a local data center.

Services offered

iCloud is a data and storage service offered by the tech company. Cloud services are widely used in the US but have been blocked in some countries. Reports say that Apple is the first company to announce changes to their local operating landscape following the release of the new rules and regulations in the country.

Some companies are still against the new rule. For some, it appears "vague" and "burdening." But it looks like foreign companies have no choice but to follow the rules in order to keep doing business in the country.

Meanwhile, the local government denies that the new rules were implemented to put foreign investors at a disadvantage.

They say that the new rules were created and implemented due to the risk of cyber terrorism. Apple is confident that their existing privacy and security protection will block potential risks of this business move.

Chinese Regulations

The rule requires foreign companies transferring more than a thousand gigabytes of data outside the country will have to undergo yearly review.

China's firms also have to expand cloud services in other countries. Their firms are currently gaining popularity like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd who has 17 data centers in total scattered around the world including Asia, Europe, Australia and the United States.