iCloud and Microsoft Azure

An old 2011 story from The Register:

But Reg sources close to Microsoft this week confirmed rumours circulating in June that Apple’s iCloud is running on Azure and Amazon. Customers’ data is being striped between the pair. iCloud was released as a beta in August and is expected by the end of this year.

Apple and Amazon did not respond to our requests to comment, while Microsoft told us: “At this time, we don’t have any comment around whether Apple is a Windows Azure customer.”

I’ve heard whispers that iCloud still makes heavy use of Azure behind the scenes, but nothing confirmed. Would be interesting to know.

What brings this to mind: Microsoft’s new CEO Satya Nadella was the head of the company’s Server division, which Azure is a part of. (It’s a profitable and growing division, too.)

★ Tuesday, 4 February 2014