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Just thinking – couldn't this be a temporary pre-launch solution because Apple's huge NC data center isn't fully operational yet?
Probably. But, in order to run on Azure, don't things have to be written in C#/.NET? That would suggest that their production stack will also leverage these technologies, potentially on windows (unless Mono over Linux or BSD is actually mature enough for this sort of thing, I wouldn't know)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But, in order to run on Azure, don't things have to be written in C#/.NET? No, not at all. They also have support for Java, Ruby, and PHP.
More precisely, the Azure storage API is HTTP/REST-like. Hence it practically supports any language that has a HTTP stack.
I think there's more to the story here because otherwise there was no point to Apple building the data centers.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But, in order to run on Azure, don't things have to be written in C#/.NET? No, not at all. They also have support for Java, Ruby, and PHP.
More precisely, the Azure storage API is HTTP/REST-like. Hence it practically supports any language that has a HTTP stack.
This article from GigaOm explains it better - Apple is likely using Azure / AWS as a CDN, because their data centers are centrally located (however this is not fact - we still don't know the extent to which they leverage azure / aws)
I think its a win-win for everyone involved - Azure makes money, and bags a high profile customer which validates their platform. Apple can leverage Azure's distributed datacenters to deliver a great experience for their users.
If this is true, I wouldn't say that it was embarrassing for Microsoft - much like how Google Maps on the iPhone is valuable asset for Google , not an embarrassment.
Wouldn't this make a successful iCloud even more embarrassing for Microsoft? They have the technology, but can't market it or make it easy for consumers to use?
Apple are most likely wanting to concentrate on their core competency (making the iCloud product) and not have to worry about (more) data centers/storage/etc to support the product.
As others mentioned it sounds like a good win for both parties; Apple get to concentrate on the product directly, Microsoft get to concentrate on their code competency (providing the hosting).
While this may just be temporary, I don't see why it would matter if it wasn't. Apple probably also uses Linux and FreeBSD for things.
Wouldn't this make a successful iCloud even more embarrassing for Microsoft? They have the technology, but can't market it or make it easy for consumers to use?