A file that Apple updated on its website last month provides the first acknowledgment that it’s relying on Google’s public cloud for data storage for its iCloud services.
The disclosure is fresh evidence that Google’s cloud has been picking up usage as it looks to catch up with Amazon and Microsoft in the cloud infrastructure business.
Apple periodically publishes new versions of a PDF called the iOS Security Guide. For years the document contained statements that iCloud services were relying on remote data storage systems from Amazon Web Services, as well as Microsoft’s Azure.
But in the latest version, the Microsoft Azure reference is gone, and in its place is Google Cloud Platform. Before the January update, Apple most recently updated the iOS Security Guide in March 2017.
iCloud stores a user’s contacts, calendars, photos, documents, and more, and since each file is broken into chunks and encrypted with AES-128 and SHA-256 keys, storage on Google Cloud Platform shouldn’t be a security concern.
Apple reached a multi-million dollar deal with Google Cloud Platform in 2016, according to reports from CRN and the Financial Times.
The document also doesn’t make it clear when Apple started storing data in Google’s cloud. Microsoft declined to comment. Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this month Google said its public cloud and its G Suite line of cloud-based productivity apps contribute $1 billion in revenue per quarter. In the fourth quarter, market leader Amazon Web Services brought in $5.11 billion in revenue.
In addition to Apple, other Google public cloud customers include Kroger, PayPal, Snap and Spotify.
