Apple takes part of iCloud to Google Cloud Platform
17 Mar 2016
After winning over Spotify in February, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) has reportedly bagged another major client - Apple. According to Financial Times and CRN, Apple had inked a multi-million dollar deal with its staunchest rival to move part of iCloud and its other cloud-based offerings to GCP Citing sources, Engadget said the company was using Amazon Web Services, Microsoft's Azure and its own data centres at the moment. Though the companies had not yet confirmed the info, CRN's sources told the publication that the deal was worth between $400 and $600 million.
The internet search company had apparently been getting more high-profile customers, due to its aggressive pursuit of them in an effort to catch up with Amazon and Microsoft.
According to commentators, while this was clearly a victory for one of Alphabet's properties, it might not last long as Apple had plans to expand its existing data centres and to build new ones, which could eventually power its cloud-based services.
After it signed the deal with Google late last year, Apple had substantially cut its reliance on AWS, whose infrastructure it had been using to run parts of iCloud and other services, according to CRN, which cited sources having knowledge of the matter.
Apple is building a data ''command center'' in Mesa, Arizona and also had been pushing plans to set up centres in Ireland and Denmark. These are expected to become operational in 2017, and would power Apple's online services, including the iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri for customers across Europe.
Newsite Re/code had a different take on Apple's data centre strategy. It said Apple had set up a team, called McQueen, with the aim of breaking its reliance on outside cloud providers, while it focused on building its own infrastructure. The thinking within the company was that rather than paying charges to the cloud providers, Apple could break even with its own data centres in about three years, Re/code said quoting sources familiar with matter.
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