Apple's $1 billion super datacenter goes live in Google Earth ahead of iCloud announcement

Apple’s North Carolina datacenter has been kept shroud in secrecy since the work began on the 500,000-square foot site. Apple being Apple, they even prevented aerial imagery of the $1 billion facility to appear in mapping services such as Google Earth, explains Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt:

If you asked Google Earth or Google Maps to show you the intersection of U.S. Route 321 and Startown Road — where the data center is located —  the current satellite imagery stopped a few yards short of the construction site. West of Startown Road, there was, as recently as two weeks ago, nothing but woods and farmland and a bit of driveway that ended abruptly in the middle of a field.

Apple has conveniently pinged Google just days before the iCloud announcement, likely asking them to lift the embargo on the North Carolina satellite imagery in their mapping services. The site is still absent from Street View, though. Go past the break to examine aerial shots of the data center yourself.

You can check out Apple’s datacenter in Google Maps using latitude and longitude information 35.588364, -81.26235. Alternatively, just head over here. Apple confirmed the iCloud service will be part of Steve Jobs’ WWDC keynote this coming Monday. We imagine he’ll put up a few slides showing off splashy press shots of the facility, provided this particular datacenter’s purpose is to host the iCloud service and Apple’s rumored digital media locker.