Apple Said To Move Part Of iCloud Services From AWS To Google Cloud Platform

A recent report claims that Apple has moved some of its iCloud and services data from Amazon Web Services to Google’s cloud platform. According to CRN, Apple has inked a deal with Google in late 2015, to reduce its reliance on Amazon Web Services.

Citing anonymous inside sources, CRN’s report claims that Apple is spending between $400 million and $600 million on Google Cloud Platform. It is still unclear whether this range refers to an annual spending rate or a set amount of capacity.

According to the sources, Google executives have told partners that Apple is spending between $400 million and $600 million on Google Cloud Platform, although this couldn’t be independently confirmed. Also unclear is whether this range refers to an annual spending rate or a set amount of capacity.

This move comes as a surprise as Apple is setting up a data “command center” in Mesa, Arizona. It also plans to have data centers in Ireland and Denmark that are expected to go into operation in 2017 and will power Apple’s online services including the iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri for customers across Europe. In a separate report published last month by Morgan Stanley analyst it is estimated that Apple spends around $1 billion annually on AWS. This sparks a speculation that the company may move to cut reliance on third party cloud platforms in the future.

It is common among tech companies to make deals in areas that they do not compete and Apple is known to use Microsoft Azure in addition to Amazon Web Service for its cloud service. In any case, if the report is true, then snagging Apple as a customer would be a second big win for Google’s cloud efforts after it was announced Google Cloud Platform will soon power Spotify’s back end as well.