Apple has previously relied on remote data storage systems from Amazon Web Services and Microsoft’s Azure but it appears to have shifted some of that work to Google. The company has revealed in a file on its website that it’s now using Google’s public cloud for iCloud data storage. This is the first such acknowledgment from Apple and it goes to show that Google’s cloud business has been picking up steam in a bid to catch up with the likes of Microsoft and Amazon in the cloud infrastructure market.
It was first reported back in 2016 that Google had won some iCloud business from Apple but neither company provided any official confirmation. Apple has now published the updated version of its iOS Security Guide which reveals that Google’s public cloud is now used for iCloud storage.
Apple last updated this document in March 2017 and until then the document had references to remote data storage systems from Amazon and Microsoft but not Google. The latest version of the document contains no references to Microsoft’s Azure but Google’s Cloud Platform is mentioned multiple times.
What the document doesn’t reveal is that whether or not Apple is also relying on the Google Cloud Platform for services other than core storage of photos and videos. The document doesn’t reveal as well when Apple first started using Google’s cloud for this purpose.