• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 

2

The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises

3

Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics

1

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 

2

The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises

3

Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
TechPointCloud

Cloud Computing Had a Wild and Wooly Week

Barb Darrow
By
Barb Darrow
Barb Darrow
Down Arrow Button Icon
Barb Darrow
By
Barb Darrow
Barb Darrow
Down Arrow Button Icon
March 18, 2016, 2:22 PM ET
470621983
Sharks floating in cloudsJohn Lund/ Getty Images/ Blend Images

If you don’t like the current cloud landscape (cloudscape?), wait a minute. It’ll change.

Take this week as an example. First, news dropped that Dropbox, which had long used Amazon Web Services to store most of its digital stuff, acknowledged that it had moved most of that (90%) to its own infrastructure. The migration, which has taken more than two years, was previously reported but wasn’t confirmed by Amazon (AMZN) nor Dropbox until now.

For those who don’t follow this space, a public cloud is a huge pool of shared servers, storage, and networking owned and managed by one provider—Amazon, Microsoft (MSFT), and Google (GOOG) are the big three. Those providers, in turn, rent that capacity to customers ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies.

It’s long made sense that companies with massive amounts of data to store and manage may want more than one source to turn to for that work. Who wants to be reliant on a single vendor for anything that important? Even Netflix (NFLX), long the poster child of a pioneering AWS user, also uses Google Cloud’s storage for archiving, as an example.

In addition, some companies, including, apparently, Dropbox, figure that once they hit a certain size, it’s better for them to do their own IT infrastructure, in this case a super-fast network connecting three regional data centers.

In an era where many companies talk about minimizing their spending on such things as data centers and servers—a narrative that AWS, Microsoft and Google seek to capitalize on—this is a notable decision.

Apple iCloud Drifts to Google (for now)

From the Dropbox blog post outlining the move:

Dropbox stores two kinds of data: file content and metadata about files and users. We’ve always had a hybrid cloud architecture, hosting metadata and our web servers in data centers we manage, and storing file content on Amazon. We were an early adopter of Amazon S3, which provided us with the ability to scale our operations rapidly and reliably. Amazon Web Services has, and continues to be, an invaluable partner—we couldn’t have grown as fast as we did without a service like AWS.

But it’s also key to remember that decisions can be reversed.

Zynga (ZNGA) once famously moved the bulk of its workloads from Amazon in-house to its own Z cloud. Then it moved them back again. Zynga, once a high flier in gaming, stumbled and has never regained its mojo, but that probably has more to do with it missing the mobile game craze than its choice of IT deployment options.

Also this week was news that Apple (AAPL), which has been using AWS and Microsoft Azure clouds for its iCloud storage service, is throwing some of that work over to Google. This was seen as a huge coup for Google and a win for Diane Greene, who leads Google’s cloud business as head of its enterprise group.

How Amazon took over cloud

The real story there, I expect, is that Apple will use whatever cloud providers it needs for now—to wring price concessions out of the other guys—until it has enough of its own infrastructure in place to run iCloud entirely on its own. A source close to the company cites a project to build out data centers known internally as “Project McQueen.”

Does anyone really see Apple relying long term on Google, which competes with Apple in phone operating and desktop operating systems; in web services like maps, web browsers (as search and data gathering conduits)? Ditto Microsoft, which is playing patty cake with Apple in some areas by putting Office on iPads, for example, but would love to bury the company overall.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily technology newsletter.

It would be interesting if Google or Apple someday acknowledges the iCloud-to-Google-Cloud shift. Perhaps next week at its Google Next conference in San Francisco. Interesting, but it’s probably not going to happen.

About the Author
Barb Darrow
By Barb Darrow
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

chicks
InnovationScience
Jurassic Park isn’t just a movie anymore as de-extinction startup hatches live chicks
By Adithi Ramakrishnan and The Associated PressMay 20, 2026
15 minutes ago
whales
AISan Francisco
San Francisco thinks AI can save the whales. Here’s how
By Annika Hammerschlag and The Associated PressMay 20, 2026
35 minutes ago
schmidt
AIColleges and Universities
The sound of graduating from college in the AI summer of 2026: boo!
By Heather Hollingsworth, Jocelyn Gecker and The Associated PressMay 20, 2026
53 minutes ago
gen z
AIGen Z
3 reasons kids hate AI—especially the ones who refuse to even try it
By Nick LichtenbergMay 20, 2026
58 minutes ago
Accenture exec says the consulting giant is hiring more entry-level workers out of college compared to last year
Future of WorkWorkplace Innovation Summit
Accenture exec says the consulting giant is hiring more entry-level workers out of college compared to last year
By Emma BurleighMay 20, 2026
2 hours ago
cohen
Startups & VentureAI agents
Meet the brothers who turned a homegrown AI agent into a $12 million bet on the future of work — in six weeks
By Nick LichtenbergMay 20, 2026
2 hours ago

Most Popular

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 
Workplace Culture
Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 
By Preston ForeMay 19, 2026
19 hours ago
The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
Politics
The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
By Jake AngeloMay 12, 2026
8 days ago
Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
Future of Work
Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
By Mike Householder and The Associated PressMay 17, 2026
3 days ago
Current price of oil as of May 19, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of May 19, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerMay 19, 2026
1 day ago
Spirit Airlines apologizes to all the Americans who can't afford any summer vacation flights as it shuts down
Travel & Leisure
Spirit Airlines apologizes to all the Americans who can't afford any summer vacation flights as it shuts down
By Rio Yamat and The Associated PressMay 18, 2026
2 days ago
Employers are quietly pausing 401(k) matches again. The last time this happened was the 2008 recession and Covid
Personal Finance
Employers are quietly pausing 401(k) matches again. The last time this happened was the 2008 recession and Covid
By Courtney Vinopal and HR BrewMay 18, 2026
2 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.