Apple 'moves iCloud backend to Google Cloud Platform'

Apple has moved a significant portion of its backend cloud systems from Amazon Web Services (AWS) to Google Cloud Platform, according to reports.

Apple signed with Google late last year, greatly reducing its reliance on AWS for its iCloud infrastructure as a result of the new partnership, accoridng to CRN, citing anonymous sources familiar with the situation.

Google officials have divulged to partners that Apple is spending in the region of $400 million to $600 million on its cloud platform, the sources claimed, though this has not been confirmed, and the range at these figures refer to was not clarified.

Despite moving a large portion of its infrastructure to Google’s servers, Apple remains an AWS customer.

None of the three tech giants in this enterprise deal have commented on these supposed shift.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley have estimated that Apple spends around $1 billion annually on AWS, but predicted that Apple is looking to reduce that figure by moving more computing to its own datacentres.

Apple is spending billions to build new datacentres in Nevada, Oregon, Ireland and Denmark.

The first of its new facilities is set to open later this year, and it is possible that Apple will cease its reliance on any external cloud providers.

Apple has reportedly set up an internal team, codenamed ‘McQueen’, to oversee its transition to a self-sustaining cloud infrastructure, according to a follow-up report from Re/code, citing sources who said Apple could break even with its own datacentres in three years compared to the fees it is paying external cloud providers.

Apple, Amazon and Google may seem like unlikely bedfellows, but reports dating back to the early days of iCloud claim that Apple was running its cloud service on Microsoft Azure.