這則資訊非常有趣：科技新聞網站CRN引用匿名人士的話稱，蘋果公司（Apple）可能正在將一部分iCloud業務轉移到谷歌的云平臺，以減少其對亞馬遜云服務（Amazon Web Services，AWS）的依賴。眾所周知，iCloud是蘋果用戶存儲照片和文件的虛擬空間。

如果此事屬實，這將給谷歌云平臺帶來巨大的推動作用。目前，谷歌正在努力躋身三大公共云提供商之一，與市場領導者亞馬遜云服務和微軟（Microsoft）Azure并駕齊驅。

按照公共云的運行模式，一家公司購買和運營大量計算能力、存儲空間和網絡帶寬，并出租給那些無意建設過多專屬于自己的基礎設施的公司。

該份報道距離Google NEXT大會還有一周時間。谷歌將在此次大會上宣布其云平臺的新特性和新客戶。VMware公司聯合創始人戴安妮?格林被任命為谷歌企業業務的負責人，屆時她將出席大會。這也是她自去年11月份上任以來首次出席的大型公共論壇。

報道稱：知情人士透露，谷歌高管告訴合伙人，蘋果公司將在谷歌云平臺投入4億至6億美元，但這一點并未得到獨立消息來源的證實。此外，目前尚不明確這一范圍是指年支出率還是固定容量的價格。

因此，這件事尚有較大的解釋空間。根據推測，此事也會影響蘋果公司對微軟Azure的使用。外界普遍接受的觀點是，iCloud同時使用Azure和AWS，但三家公司均未對此事進行確認。

《財富》雜志已經聯系各家公司，并會隨時提供最新動向。

不過下面才是問題的關鍵。蘋果一直以其封閉性著稱，因此從長期來看，我們不太可能看到蘋果依賴這些行業巨頭。蘋果公司對自己的數據中心基礎設施的投入巨大。上個月，摩根?士丹利（Morgan Stanley）的分析師認為，蘋果公司39億美元的投資計劃，表明其正在美國和歐洲興建自己的大規模數據中心。分析師表示，隨著蘋果公司開始更多使用自己的數據中心容量，其在AWS上的支出將會下降。據分析師估計，蘋果公司在AWS的支出約為每年10億美元，而此項支出將會縮減。

歸根結底的問題是，除了這些公司，外界沒有得到任何官方的消息，但據我猜測，蘋果公司很清楚，對于云基礎設施，公司必須將命運掌握在自己手中。

而且谷歌、亞馬遜和微軟，是蘋果公司多項業務巨大的競爭對手，因此這一點顯得尤為重要。所以，蘋果公司不太可能允許過于依賴任何一家或三家公司的云服務的情況發生。

但修建數據中心需要數年時間。有一位資深云技術觀察家和IT顧問說過，蘋果一直希望控制自己的技術堆棧，這意味著蘋果會讓這些云服務提供商彼此競爭，直到自己做好準備之后，便會將它們拋棄。我很認同這一觀點。

不過，別忘了，我以前也曾犯過錯誤。(財富中文網)

譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

This is interesting: Apple may be moving a chunk of its iCloud business—you know, that ethereal place where you store your photos and documents— to Google’s cloud, lessening its dependence on Amazon Web Services, according to a report from tech news site CRN that cites unnamed sources.

If true it will be a big boost for the Google Cloud Platform at a time when it is trying to position itself as one of the big three public cloud providers along with market leader AmazonWeb Services and MicrosoftAzure.

In the public cloud model, one company buys and operates huge amounts of compute power, storage and networking bandwidth that it rents out to businesses that do not want to build more of their own infrastructure.

The report comes a week before the Google Next conference, at which the company will likely announce new features and customers for its cloud platform. Diane Greene, the VMwareco-founder who was named as head of Google’s enterprise efforts, will be on hand in her first major public forum since taking that job last November.

From the story:According to the sources, Google executives have told partners that Apple is spending between $400 million and $600 million on Google Cloud Platform, although this couldn’t be independently confirmed. Also unclear is whether this range refers to an annual spending rate or a set amount of capacity.

So that’s a bunch of wiggle room. Presumably this could also affect Apple’s use of Microsoft Azure. It’s generally accepted that iCloud uses Azure as well as AWS, although none of the three companies have confirmed any of this.

Fortune has reached out to all of these companies and will update this story as needed.

But here’s the thing. Given Apple’s famous insular nature, it’s hard to see it relying on these big players in the long term. Apple is spending a ton on its own data center infrastructure. Last month Morgan Stanley analysts cited $3.9 billion in planned capital spending as an indicator that it is building its own massive data centers in the U.S. and Europe. The analysts said that as Apple starts using more of its own data center capacity, its spending on AWS—which the analysts estimated to be $1 billion a year—will trail off.

The bottom line is that no one outside these companies knows anything officially, but I would guess that Apple knows it has to control its own destiny when it comes to cloud infrastructure.

This is especially true as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are all huge competitors to various pieces of Apple’s business. So for Apple to allow a dependency to grow on one or more of their clouds just doesn’t seem likely.

Still it takes years to build data centers. I agree with one long-time cloud watcher and IT consultant who said Apple always wants to control its own technology stack which means Apple will play these cloud providers off against each other until such time it’s ready to jettison all of them.

But hey, I’ve been wrong before.