Apple Reportedly Storing Over 8 Million Terabytes of iCloud Data on Google Servers

Apple has dramatically increased the amount of iCloud user data it stores on Google Cloud, according to The Information.

iCloud General Feature
The report claims Apple now has over eight million terabytes of data stored on Google's servers. As of mid-May, Apple was reportedly on track to spend around $300 million on Google cloud storage services this year, which would represent an increase of roughly 50% from all of 2020. Apple is said to be the largest corporate client for Google Cloud, dwarfing other high-profile customers like Spotify.

Google Cloud staffers have apparently even given Apple an internal code name that hints at its size as a customer: "Bigfoot."

Apple relies on a combination of its own data centers and third-party cloud storage services, such as Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services, to store iCloud user data like photos and messages. Apple does not provide third-party cloud storage providers with the keys to decrypt user data stored on their servers, ensuring a strong level of security.

The report speculates that Apple's increased use of Google Cloud suggests the company's rising cloud storage requirements have outpaced its ability to develop and operate its own data centers needed to handle the resulting data.

Tags: Google, iCloud

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Top Rated Comments

grantew1 Avatar
52 months ago

Truly a shame.
Apple does not provide third-party cloud storage providers with the keys to decrypt user data stored on their servers, ensuring a strong level of security.

Google doesn't have access to the data. What's a shame?
Score: 59 Votes (Like | Disagree)
NightFox Avatar
52 months ago
Little do Apple realise that Google just store that 8 million TB of data on their own google@icloud.com iCloud account.
Score: 59 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GubbyMan Avatar
52 months ago
8 Exabytes for $300M a year. Which means Apple is paying Google $1 a month for 320GB of storage.
Score: 46 Votes (Like | Disagree)
neuropsychguy Avatar
52 months ago

Truly a shame.
So what is Apple supposed to do instead? Limit iCloud storage? Magically have data servers and centers appear? It takes time to build centers. If Google or other companies have them already, why not use those temporarily or instead?
Score: 37 Votes (Like | Disagree)
grantew1 Avatar
52 months ago

Is google has my data? Great!
Reading > you.

Apple does not provide third-party cloud storage providers with the keys to decrypt user data stored on their servers, ensuring a strong level of security.
Score: 35 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Bobcat32 Avatar
52 months ago
I’m feeling triggered ? lol
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)