Apple has dramatically increased the amount of data that it stores on Google’s cloud services, suggesting that its storage needs have grown faster than it can handle with its servers, the media reported.
Apple was on track to spend about $300 million on Google cloud storage services in 2021, about a 50 percent increase year-over-year, reports The Information.
Back in November 2020, Apple increased the amount of user data it stored on Google services by about 470 petabytes, bringing the total amount of data it had on Google’s cloud to more than 8 exabytes.
For reference, a single exabyte is enough to record a video call that’s more than 237,000 years long, AppleInsider reported.
Apple also appears to be getting a great deal for Google cloud storage. According to cost calculators on Google’s website, storing 8 exabytes of data costs about $218 million per month.
Apple, again, pays Google about $300 million per year storing the same amount.
After Apple and ByteDance, Spotify was Google’s third-largest customer with about 460 petabytes of data, Twitter came in fourth with 315 petabytes, and Snapchat ranked third with about 275 petabytes.
Apple stores user iCloud data on both Amazon Web Services and Google’s cloud. That data is encrypted by Apple, meaning that neither Amazon nor Google can obtain the customer’s iCloud information.
