iCloud will fly in Google’s cloud: convenience or strategy?
Apple and Google: is it a marriage that has to be done? Newspapers and specialized information sites all over the world, from the international Financial Times to the more “homely” Sole 24 Ore, are going crazy with the news that Apple would have entrusted part of its iCloud services, i.e. cloud storage services, to the Mountain View giant.
According to the latest rumors, in fact, after blowing Amazon Web Services from a customer like
Spotify
, Google would have signed an agreement with Apple to host part of the iCloud services on its network.
For the world’s most popular search engine, it would be a big step forward in a market in which it is not a leader but is behind Amazon and Microsoft Azure, which is also exploited by Apple.
What would be the reason for this switch? Reduce the e-commerce giant’s server rental costs by about half , which, according to estimates by analysts at Mongan Stanley, would be around $1 billion a year. Google Cloud Platform, unlike AWS, would settle for $400 million to $600 million.
But are Google’s cloud storage services really cheaper than Amazon’s? You could roughly calculate the price based on GB traffic using the standard price list. While with AWS for each GB within the first TB of the month the figure is $0.0300 (a figure that decreases as traffic increases after the first TB) (figure 1), with Google Cloud services it is instead $0.026 per GB (figure 2).
(Figure 1)
(Figure 2)
It should be noted, however, that these prices do not take into account the steep discounts that AWS applies to customers whose requests are not for standard traffic volumes. This race to the bottom is nothing new. It is a well-known fact that cloud giants are accustomed, from time to time, to lower prices by fighting a “war” that has among its objectives that of convincing more and more people to use the public cloud.
But are we really sure that Apple’s iCloud services use Amazon Web Services when Apple owns data centers? This is also an interesting question considering that the company is expanding its data center infrastructure in order to support its current and future internet and cloud services. On July 31, 2009, Apple paid about $3.5 million to acquire 255 acres of land near Startown Road and Route 321. In fact, the construction of the data center began in September 2009 and the construction was completed in about a year.
But that’s not all. According to Bloomberg, Apple will spend about $3.9 billion on the construction of data centers in Arizona, Ireland and Denmark and is investing in the construction of high-speed fiber-optic lines between its data centers to increase bandwidth.
Currently, Apple’s data centers predominantly use off-the-shelf equipment: HP servers, Cisco switches, and NetApp storage. It is clear, therefore, that Apple is designing its infrastructure with the aim of increasing its efficiency and reducing costs.
So, if it’s proven that Apple owns its own data centers, why should it outsource some of its cloud services to Google? What if this is a competitive ploy to undermine AWS’s undisputed leadership in the market?
