“Apple Inc. is assembling a high-speed network and upgrading how it builds data centers,” Peter Burrows reports for Bloomberg, citing “people familiar with the plans.”
“Up to now, Apple has relied mostly on traditional network providers and technology suppliers to support consumer services such as iTunes for music and movies, iCloud for storing photos and other content and the Siri voice-activated assistant,” Burrows reports. “Apple is planning to introduce a streaming-music service at its developer conference in San Francisco on Monday, with TV possibly following later in the year. It will need more efficient, faster infrastructure to ensure glitch-free delivery, people with knowledge of the matter have said.”
“Apple’s push to build a stronger cloud infrastructure combines two initiatives: Building out a faster network and upgrading data centers. While Apple hasn’t disclosed total costs, investments will run into the billions,” Burrows reports. “Apple wants to own pipes linking its four large U.S. data centers and Internet hubs in certain cities to ensure fast, reliable delivery of content and services. By adding capacity and increasing efficiency, it seeks to handle more traffic on its own, without renting as much server space from cloud providers such as Amazon and Microsoft, said people with knowledge of the plan, who asked not to be identified because Apple isn’t discussing the moves publicly. ”
“Rather than buy off-the-shelf technology, the company has been working on ways to send data via fiber lines at hundreds of gigabits per second, according to one of the people,” Burrows reports. “Before, Apple’s data centers were filled mostly with off-the-shelf gear such as Hewlett-Packard Co. servers, Cisco Systems Inc. ethernet switches, and NetApp Inc. storage gear. For the past couple of years, it has been in talks with companies that can help it design its own equipment.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s about time! Although it’s been getting better recently, Apple TV had become sort of a joke among users for its slowness. “Oh, Apple TV? Hurry up and wait!” Enough with the iCloud outages, too. This stuff has to be rock-solid, dependable, and fast!
SEE ALSO:
What Apple’s new content delivery network means for so-called ‘net neutrality’ – and for you – August 19, 2014
Apple’s content delivery network now live; paid interconnect deals with ISPs, massive capacity in place – August 1, 2014
Apple’s content delivery network is reportedly live and it’s positively massive – July 31, 2014
Apple negotiating paid interconnect deals with ISPs for their own Content Delivery Network – May 20, 2014
It’s not just a speed issue, it’s also a reliability issue. Apple needs to keep working to make iCloud and its application that are connected to it more reliable.
iCloud is worlds better than Mobile Me, but it’s not as reliable as it should be yet.
Still, this is a good sign: putting resources into infrastructure, while not as sexy as a new gadget, will improve the user experience of everyone who uses Apple products, whether they notice it or not. Too bad the US government isn’t thinking along the same lines about our crumbling infrastructure.
Right on, MDN…
What Apple needs to do is build/lease/IRU its own fiber optic network while regionally distributing its data centers and stop buying 3d party lit services (Waves and Ethernet Transport) it can’t control while pushing the content as far to the “edges” as possible. Apple call me, I can help 🙂
Apple certainly has the financial means to build out the biggest and best content delivery system on the planet. I don’t know exactly what that requires but even if they have to acquire the know-how, they should do it. Based on Apple’s share price stagnation it appears the stock buybacks are like money being thrown down the toilet, so maybe that money could be put to better use. More data centers, fiber optic connections and the world’s fastest servers. Apple should be able to do far better than what Netflix or Spotify can do in terms of pure content distribution. Apple could build hooks into their own OS if that would help.
I’m only offering my personal opinion since I don’t know what it takes to deliver content. Maybe having a lot of money isn’t everything. I’ll simply have to trust Apple to get done what needs to be done. It probably won’t happen overnight. It’s just that I’m sick and tired of hearing how Amazon was able to easily dominate cloud storage services (AWS) market share while the big boys slept. Is Jeff Bezos really that much smarter than the other CEOs.
Will the iCloud Pages, Numbers, and Keynote apps ever get out of “beta”? I haven’t had many problems with streaming content directly from Apple. I’ve been buying a lot of movies and TV shows lately, and opting not to download them. They stream great on my Apple TV.
I’m still not putting my stuff on someone else’s computer. I don’t care how fast it is.
This is all about Apple having networking gear that doesn’t have government ‘back-doors’.
If true, and priced reasonably, this would be Apple’s killer product. This would allow Apple to loan money to governments. This would kick Apple shares into 1000 dollar mark again, especially if they can do this around the world.
This kind of money, allows that dumb, no so bright, watch to exist until…
What servers will Apple be using? Vintage 2009 Xserves? The irony is sickening.
Sounds like Apple is becoming its own Akamai.