Apple and Google manage competing ecosystems in the smartphone world, but when it comes to storing and processing all that smartphone data the two companies appear to be partners. Apple has started using Google Cloud Platform to store some iCloud data, according to multiple published reports.
The world’s leading provider of cloud services is Amazon.com with its AWS platform, and Apple has been a longtime AWS customer. The iPhone maker continues to use AWS, but is reportedly diversifying by shifting some of its business to Google. At the same time, Apple is busy building data centers in the U.S. and Europe, so it is likely the company will eventually have its own cloud service platform.
The cloud is a priority for Google, which recently hired VMWare co-founder Diane Greene to lead its cloud business. The company’s next big cloud customer could be Verizon Communications. According to CRN, one Verizon partner said the two companies are discussing the possibility of a “Google cloud with a Verizon wrapper.” Verizon is reportedly looking to sell many of the data centers that it owns, so a cloud partner would make sense for the carrier.
Investigators at Apple Insider say they found more evidence Apple is turning to Google for cloud support, in the form of software routing certain outbound data requests through Google’s servers in Asia.
If Apple is indeed working with Google, the relationship will probably do little to diffuse the intense competition between the two companies. Many wireless companies do business with their rivals and continue to compete for the hearts, minds and dollars of their customers. AT&T, for example, owns infrastructure that is used by many other carriers, but those business relationships do not change the competitive dynamic in the market for wireless subscribers.
