Apple Stores Over 8 Million Terabytes of iCloud Data on Google’s Servers

Apple in increasing its reliance on Google’s cloud storage services.

Apple continues to rely heavily on Google Cloud as a new report claims the company is now spending 50 percent more than it did last year, notes The Information. Google’s cloud-based storage solution plays host to iCloud and all the data kept within it.

According to the report, Apple is now Google Cloud’s biggest customer and is on track to spend around $300 million USD on Google Cloud storage this year.

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, explains the report. For reference, a single exabyte is enough to record a video call that’s more than 237,000 years long.

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 USD per month. Apple, again, pays Google about $300 million USD per year storing the same amount.

This comes as Apple is readying iCloud+, a rebranding of its paid-for iCloud tiers that allow users to take up more cloud storage — including expanded HomeKit Secure Video camera recordings.

As Apple continues to allow iPhone, iPad, and Mac users to push more data into the cloud it stands to reason that it would need more cloud storage. With photo and video quality improving with every iPhone and file size growing, simply enabling iCloud Photo Library is enough for every user to eat into Apple’s storage by the gigabyte.