苹果iCloud服务或转移至谷歌

这则资讯非常有趣：科技新闻网站CRN引用匿名人士的话称，苹果公司（Apple）可能正在将一部分iCloud业务转移到谷歌的云平台，以减少其对亚马逊云服务（Amazon Web Services，AWS）的依赖。众所周知，iCloud是苹果用户存储照片和文件的虚拟空间。

如果此事属实，这将给谷歌云平台带来巨大的推动作用。目前，谷歌正在努力跻身三大公共云提供商之一，与市场领导者亚马逊云服务和微软（Microsoft）Azure并驾齐驱。

按照公共云的运行模式，一家公司购买和运营大量计算能力、存储空间和网络带宽，并出租给那些无意建设过多专属于自己的基础设施的公司。

该份报道距离Google NEXT大会还有一周时间。谷歌将在此次大会上宣布其云平台的新特性和新客户。VMware公司联合创始人戴安妮•格林被任命为谷歌企业业务的负责人，届时她将出席大会。这也是她自去年11月份上任以来首次出席的大型公共论坛。

报道称：知情人士透露，谷歌高管告诉合伙人，苹果公司将在谷歌云平台投入4亿至6亿美元，但这一点并未得到独立消息来源的证实。此外，目前尚不明确这一范围是指年支出率还是固定容量的价格。

因此，这件事尚有较大的解释空间。根据推测，此事也会影响苹果公司对微软Azure的使用。外界普遍接受的观点是，iCloud同时使用Azure和AWS，但三家公司均未对此事进行确认。

《财富》杂志已经联系各家公司，并会随时提供最新动向。

不过下面才是问题的关键。苹果一直以其封闭性著称，因此从长期来看，我们不太可能看到苹果依赖这些行业巨头。苹果公司对自己的数据中心基础设施的投入巨大。上个月，摩根•士丹利（Morgan Stanley）的分析师认为，苹果公司39亿美元的投资计划，表明其正在美国和欧洲兴建自己的大规模数据中心。分析师表示，随着苹果公司开始更多使用自己的数据中心容量，其在AWS上的支出将会下降。据分析师估计，苹果公司在AWS的支出约为每年10亿美元，而此项支出将会缩减。

归根结底的问题是，除了这些公司，外界没有得到任何官方的消息，但据我猜测，苹果公司很清楚，对于云基础设施，公司必须将命运掌握在自己手中。

而且谷歌、亚马逊和微软，是苹果公司多项业务巨大的竞争对手，因此这一点显得尤为重要。所以，苹果公司不太可能允许过于依赖任何一家或三家公司的云服务的情况发生。

但修建数据中心需要数年时间。有一位资深云技术观察家和IT顾问说过，苹果一直希望控制自己的技术堆栈，这意味着苹果会让这些云服务提供商彼此竞争，直到自己做好准备之后，便会将它们抛弃。我很认同这一观点。

不过，别忘了，我以前也曾犯过错误。(财富中文网)

译者：刘进龙/汪皓

This is interesting: Apple may be moving a chunk of its iCloud business—you know, that ethereal place where you store your photos and documents— to Google’s cloud, lessening its dependence on Amazon Web Services, according to a report from tech news site CRN that cites unnamed sources.

If true it will be a big boost for the Google Cloud Platform at a time when it is trying to position itself as one of the big three public cloud providers along with market leader AmazonWeb Services and MicrosoftAzure.

In the public cloud model, one company buys and operates huge amounts of compute power, storage and networking bandwidth that it rents out to businesses that do not want to build more of their own infrastructure.

The report comes a week before the Google Next conference, at which the company will likely announce new features and customers for its cloud platform. Diane Greene, the VMwareco-founder who was named as head of Google’s enterprise efforts, will be on hand in her first major public forum since taking that job last November.

From the story: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.

So that’s a bunch of wiggle room. Presumably this could also affect Apple’s use of Microsoft Azure. It’s generally accepted that iCloud uses Azure as well as AWS, although none of the three companies have confirmed any of this.

Fortune has reached out to all of these companies and will update this story as needed.

But here’s the thing. Given Apple’s famous insular nature, it’s hard to see it relying on these big players in the long term. Apple is spending a ton on its own data center infrastructure. Last month Morgan Stanley analysts cited $3.9 billion in planned capital spending as an indicator that it is building its own massive data centers in the U.S. and Europe. The analysts said that as Apple starts using more of its own data center capacity, its spending on AWS—which the analysts estimated to be $1 billion a year—will trail off.

The bottom line is that no one outside these companies knows anything officially, but I would guess that Apple knows it has to control its own destiny when it comes to cloud infrastructure.

This is especially true as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are all huge competitors to various pieces of Apple’s business. So for Apple to allow a dependency to grow on one or more of their clouds just doesn’t seem likely.

Still it takes years to build data centers. I agree with one long-time cloud watcher and IT consultant who said Apple always wants to control its own technology stack which means Apple will play these cloud providers off against each other until such time it’s ready to jettison all of them.

But hey, I’ve been wrong before.