Google execs have reportedly told partners Apple is spending $400M-$600M on the Google Cloud Platform - CRN says it isn't clear if this reflects an annual spending rate or capacity purchases. Morgan Stanley estimated last month Apple, which has been investing heavily in its own data center infrastructure, spends ~$1B/year on AWS.
The report comes three weeks after Spotify, which has relied on both AWS and its own servers, announced it's migrating its infrastructure to the Google Cloud Platform. It also shortly follows a Wired column about cloud storage giant Dropbox's (Private:DROPB) efforts to migrate from AWS to a home-grown infrastructure relying on "a software system built by its own programmers with a brand new programming language" (not something many companies have the resources to pull off). Aside from Spotify, known Google clients include Snapchat, Coca-Cola, Best Buy, and Sony.
Amazon still towers over the IaaS market, while Google is viewed as #3 or #4 (behind Amazon, Microsoft, and perhaps IBM). Synergy Research estimates Google's IaaS and cloud app platform (PaaS) revenue totaled less than ~$300M in Q4; Amazon reported Q4 AWS revenue of $2.4B (+69% Y/Y).
Michael Fraser, head of cloud management software firm InfiniteOps, argues Google's huge fiber network provides bandwidth cost savings - possibly an incentive for Apple, given the amount of download activity it handles - and that its platform (per InfiniteOps' tests) delivers better performance than that of any major rival. "Google is actually the cheapest play in the market when you take into consideration everything they're doing and when you take into account their various incentives."
Amazon closed down 0.5% after slipping in the wake of CRN's column (the Nasdaq rose 0.8%), and is down 1% in after-hours trading.
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