Apple plans self-sufficient cloud infrastructure with 'Project McQueen'
With Project McQueen, Apple is looking to ween off third-party cloud providers like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft in favor of its own infrastructure, an investment expected to pay for itself within three years of going live, a person familiar with the company's plans told VentureBeat.
Apple currently relies on AWS and Microsoft's Azure for its content serving needs, including data-intensive products like iTunes and iCloud. The massive user base of iTunes and its various music, video and app storefronts is well known, and in February Apple revealed it services more than 782 million active iCloud accounts worldwide.
Sources said, however, that the iPhone maker is not pleased with Amazon's performance, specifically the inability to quickly expedite photo and video requests from iOS devices. In addition, Apple wants to bring iTunes under one roof. Currently, third-party services handle a majority of iTunes' data needs, with Azure being the primary provider, sources said.
