Bloomberg reports Apple is making moves to unify all of its internet services teams under one roof at its Cupertino, Calif. headquarters. The move is said to be a move to better compete with cloud-based services offered by competitors, such as Amazon and Google.
Apple cloud services teams run by executive Eddy Cue, including Siri, Maps, iCloud, Apple Pay, Apple News and parts of iTunes and Apple Music, will move together into the company’s existing Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino, California, the people said. Currently, most Apple services are developed separately from each other in office parks rented out in other parts of Cupertino and Sunnyvale, California.
The move should streamline the development of Apple cloud services, helping eliminate miscommunication, which has contributed to slower product development, and an increased number of software bugs.
While many teams are vying to move their operations to Apple’s new “Campus 2” facility when it opens in a few months, Cue believes unifying the teams at the old campus facilities is a suitable way to improve his organization, Bloomberg’s sources said.
Bloomberg says Apple is also planning to shift its services to a single, homegrown backend system, codenamed “Pie.”
Apple has begun moving over parts of Siri, the iTunes Store, and Apple News to the new platform, one of the people said. Apple plans to move other services, including Maps, to its new system over the next few years. Apple has also developed an internal photo storage system dubbed McQueen to gradually end its reliance on Google and Amazon servers, the people said.
Previous reports indicated Apple is working on a homegrown cloud storage scheme codenamed “McQueen,” in order to reduce its dependence on services operated by competitors, such as Amazon web Services, and Google Cloud Platform. Today’s report reveals the new storage system will be used for photo storage.
Apple recently hired former Time Warner Cable executive Peter Stern as a vice president in charge of cloud services.
