- Buried deep in a document intended for developers and IT professionals is an acknowledgement from Apple that it uses Google Cloud Platform.
- Since 2016, Apple has been widely thought to use both Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud to power its iCloud service, though Apple had never confirmed it publicly.
- This is a sweet moment for Google's cloud boss, Diane Greene, who has been trying to show the world how many big customers Google has nabbed for its cloud business.
Apple has finally told the world it uses services from Google Cloud to power iCloud, its cloud backup-and-storage system for iPad, iPhone, and Mac.
This is a sweet victory for Google's cloud boss, Diane Greene.
The acknowledgement came as a single reference to the Google Cloud Platform buried deep in a document written by Apple that outlines the security features of iOS 11 for developers and IT professionals. It was first spotted by CNBC's Jordan Novet.
News that Apple had turned to Google to help it with its massive cloud-storage needs broke in 2016, though Apple had never confirmed it. At the time, some analysts estimated that Apple was spending $1 billion a year with Amazon and that its contract with Google was most likely $400 million to $600 million a year.
The revelatory document is regularly updated. The newest iteration, published in January, says Apple iCloud uses Google Cloud Platform as well as Amazon Web Service's S3 storage service to store encrypted chunks of an iPhone's or iPad's backed-up files like contacts, calendars, photos, documents, and more.
In other words, all the stuff people back up to iCloud is being sent to Amazon's and Google's clouds too. (Side note: Apple didn't include the word "Amazon" in the document, only "S3," but it couldn't get away without mentioning Google's cloud service because the product's official name is Google Cloud Platform.)
Another thing Novet points out is that Microsoft's Azure is now missing in this document from the list of cloud services Apple uses, though it has been mentioned in the past. Microsoft declined to comment on the document or whether Apple remained a customer.
Given the heated competition in smartphones between Apple's iOS and Google's Android, we imagine Apple must grit its teeth when writing that check to Google every month.
On the other hand, Greene has been handed a gift with this public acknowledgement.
She has for years been insisting Google has been winning big customers, even if the search giant can't always disclose them publicly. Moreover, she's said her team wins lots of cloud deals over Amazon and Microsoft. Google has also invested in technology to make its cloud work nicely with Amazon's and Microsoft's.
Still, Apple loves secrecy, so Greene has never been able to tout this deal — until now.
This is such a sweet win for Google that it has already inspired a meme:
