I kinda wonder what exactly they are running for servers seeing as it's unlikely that they are running their own MacMini's or MacPro's since neither of these devices are suitable for a high density server farm. They did away with the Xserve's or maybe they still produce a varient of them for their own data centers, who knows. "Purpose-built" seems like this. Which makes me wonder what they are using for disks.
They could custom build ARM chips since they'll be using so many, it will be worth while.... ;-).
Could be a good opportunity to lure away key personnel from Amazon and Google to right the ship and ensure smooth sailing in the future for iCloud.
Now is the time for Cook to hire a SVP for cloud services. Oh and appoint someone to oversee Apple's 4 platforms too. Let them be the face of Apple to developers. And task them with ensuring the best productivity apps are built for iPad Air first.
When they say platform, they're just talking about the technology used to implement it. When (if) they roll it out, it will be distributed across hundreds, perhaps thousands, of machines.
Have you noticed that when the this site goes mental with news that Apple service X has been down for three hours, the problem doesn't usually affect everyone?
Apple in the old days was famous for its simple flat management style when others were ultra hierarchical, sounds like Tim is headed back in that direction for internal operation and systems in some respects.
Apple is a functional organization where most similar companies are based around products.
Maybe they are trying to take some slice away from AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure - Why not? And with enterprise entry with IBM and Cisco, maybe they are provided added support to enterprise. So, is consumer electronic company trying to get back to old business - Why not?
This is about getting their internal house in order so they can operate more efficiently.
Apple is not looking to compete in hosted cloud services.
Apple is a functional organization where most similar companies are based around products.
Hardware
Software
Design
Services
Retail
NOT
iPod
Mac
iPhone
iPad
Mac OS
iOS
Pro Apps
iLife
and then under Services, this is where the silos basically start. A Tech Stack for ITMS, a Stack for iCloud, a stack for the store, a tech stack for iMessage, a stack for apple Pay, a stack for etc. If I'm reading this correctly, they are moving to one Tech Stack, and one API model, to simplify interoperability and cross scalability.
Just look at the Apple Store. There is no reason (well, no good reason), that a site be down for hours before adding what really is... 1 page to your store front (pre-order a phone). If anything, half the store should be in 'B' testing, and then at 11:55pm, the 'b' side becomes the 'a' side, and the old 'a' dies off and is restarted as 'b'.
Look at Netflix, When was the last time you saw netflix down for anything other than a failure. And they typically are doing 5-30 A/B tests in parallel all day long.
So, the challenge is under Services. Can they effectively build an Amazon Tech Stack, where demand loading can be as automated as Netflix's model, which can dynamically shift compute models on the fly (from say, shopping, to the "Sire Smart @ssed Answer Engine" (SSAAe), when every one and their mother starts trying out 'Hey Siri' on the 26th). If the stacks aren't compatible, That autoshift isn't possible.
and then under Services, this is where the silos basically start. A Tech Stack for ITMS, a Stack for iCloud, a stack for the store, a tech stack for iMessage, a stack for apple Pay, a stack for etc. If I'm reading this correctly, they are moving to one Tech Stack, and one API model, to simplify interoperability and cross scalability.
Just look at the Apple Store. There is no reason (well, no good reason), that a site be down for hours before adding what really is... 1 page to your store front (pre-order a phone). If anything, half the store should be in 'B' testing, and then at 11:55pm, the 'b' side becomes the 'a' side, and the old 'a' dies off and is restarted as 'b'.
Look at Netflix, When was the last time you saw netflix down for anything other than a failure. And they typically are doing 5-30 A/B tests in parallel all day long.
So, the challenge is under Services. Can they effectively build an Amazon Tech Stack, where demand loading can be as automated as Netflix's model, which can dynamically shift compute models on the fly (from say, shopping, to the "Sire Smart @ssed Answer Engine" (SSAAe), when every one and their mother starts trying out 'Hey Siri' on the 26th). If the stacks aren't compatible, That autoshift isn't possible.
The actual article that this report is quoting also mentions a push to use more Open Source Software.
Apple used to run a lot of Sun servers, they are probably on linux today. The Apple Store and iTunes are on WebObjects, a NeXT technology. I don't know what Siri uses.
In the late 1990s I think, using OS9, I signed up to a free account for Mac users on iTools. My friends marvelled that all my computers were now in sync, and that I had cloud storage at my fingertips. Then came .Mac, which I think I had to pay a small amount for, and the even better, but worse, MobileMe - dropping the iDisk I'd come to rely on. Now iCloud - and my iPhone somehow syncs, but I have a personal account and a business account and I don't want all my personal stuff shared across everyone's company devices and it's all got harder. Meanwhile Google and Microsoft have done what Apple does - come late to the party and got some traction. Google Drive seems oddly popular, but Apple seems to have lots its early lead. Time to fix that.
In the late 1990s I think, using OS9, I signed up to a free account for Mac users on iTools. My friends marvelled that all my computers were now in sync, and that I had cloud storage at my fingertips. Then came .Mac, which I think I had to pay a small amount for, and the even better, but worse, MobileMe - dropping the iDisk I'd come to rely on. Now iCloud - and my iPhone somehow syncs, but I have a personal account and a business account and I don't want all my personal stuff shared across everyone's company devices and it's all got harder. Meanwhile Google and Microsoft have done what Apple does - come late to the party and got some traction. Google Drive seems oddly popular, but Apple seems to have lots its early lead. Time to fix that.
I remembered iTools being January 2000, and whaddaya know - the press release is still online!:
I dont understand why the dislike on Siri's team, Siri is properly the best of the Apple Internet Services. Modern too.
For those who dont know, latest Siri has been rebuilt on Mesos, (http://mesos.apache.org/) , with their own scheduler called Jarvis ( Named after the IronMan AI ). It was announced on Mesosphere this year and it was very big news for the industry, one because first time Apple opened up what they are using in their Web Stack, second being a confirmation that Mesos is ready for REALLY big enterprise, not just hot and latest tech running startup.
What that basically means is that Apple now has its own Internal PaaS ( Platform as a Services ). The Platform will ( or hopefully ) evolve independent of the Product running on top of it like Siri, iTunes, etc.
From what i have been told / read Apple has always been relying on off the shelf solution for storage and Database, which is similar to what other big enterprise and banks uses. But Internet companies tend to built those themselves, Facebook, Yahoo and Google all uses either Internal developed solution or Open Sources solution. And Apple has been heading this way for sometime. Hopefully we see less Oracle DB and proprietary SAN.
Edit. I hope Apple built there own server as well. I have a hard time understanding why they continue to buy off the self Servers. The amount of Data going to iCloud in the coming years will be gigantic. One possible signal for this movement is Apple joining open compute project originally lead by Facebook ( http://www.opencompute.org/ )
Maybe they are trying to take some slice away from AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure - Why not? And with enterprise entry with IBM and Cisco, maybe they are provided added support to enterprise. So, is consumer electronic company trying to get back to old business - Why not?
Not likely to happen because so far the IBM/Apple has yet to take off in enterprise growth. Also Apple would likely expect enterprises to pay a higher premium, not to mention that the cost for such a move would cost companies too much money to try an untested Cloud storage provider in the areas where others have become very established and proven for large Enterprises to even consider.
Not to mention Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are more reputable in the Enterprise Cloud Storage business. Maybe smaller startups that run on an all Mac environment would be their target businesses.
Infrastructure is irrelevant if the basic services aren't up to snuff. iCloud email, for example, still doesn't support user-owned domains and commits the greatest sin of anti-spam, silently discarding certain "spam" emails. If it weren't for calendar and contact sync I wouldn't bother with iCloud at all, and I still don't use their email for anything that isn't throwaway.
Comments
I kinda wonder what exactly they are running for servers seeing as it's unlikely that they are running their own MacMini's or MacPro's since neither of these devices are suitable for a high density server farm. They did away with the Xserve's or maybe they still produce a varient of them for their own data centers, who knows. "Purpose-built" seems like this. Which makes me wonder what they are using for disks.
They could custom build ARM chips since they'll be using so many, it will be worth while.... ;-).
Now is the time for Cook to hire a SVP for cloud services. Oh and appoint someone to oversee Apple's 4 platforms too. Let them be the face of Apple to developers. And task them with ensuring the best productivity apps are built for iPad Air first.
When they say platform, they're just talking about the technology used to implement it. When (if) they roll it out, it will be distributed across hundreds, perhaps thousands, of machines.
Have you noticed that when the this site goes mental with news that Apple service X has been down for three hours, the problem doesn't usually affect everyone?
Try hundreds of thousands.
Out of 500 million
Apple in the old days was famous for its simple flat management style when others were ultra hierarchical, sounds like Tim is headed back in that direction for internal operation and systems in some respects.
Apple is a functional organization where most similar companies are based around products.
Hardware
Software
Design
Services
Retail
NOT
iPod
Mac
iPhone
iPad
Mac OS
iOS
Pro Apps
iLife
So one integrated, common platform system means that when it goes down, everything goes down? That does not seem like and improvement.
Ever fly a plane through a cloud?
Did you break the cloud?
Maybe they are trying to take some slice away from AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure - Why not? And with enterprise entry with IBM and Cisco, maybe they are provided added support to enterprise. So, is consumer electronic company trying to get back to old business - Why not?
This is about getting their internal house in order so they can operate more efficiently.
Apple is not looking to compete in hosted cloud services.
Apple is a functional organization where most similar companies are based around products.
Hardware
Software
Design
Services
Retail
NOT
iPod
Mac
iPhone
iPad
Mac OS
iOS
Pro Apps
iLife
and then under Services, this is where the silos basically start. A Tech Stack for ITMS, a Stack for iCloud, a stack for the store, a tech stack for iMessage, a stack for apple Pay, a stack for etc. If I'm reading this correctly, they are moving to one Tech Stack, and one API model, to simplify interoperability and cross scalability.
Just look at the Apple Store. There is no reason (well, no good reason), that a site be down for hours before adding what really is... 1 page to your store front (pre-order a phone). If anything, half the store should be in 'B' testing, and then at 11:55pm, the 'b' side becomes the 'a' side, and the old 'a' dies off and is restarted as 'b'.
Look at Netflix, When was the last time you saw netflix down for anything other than a failure. And they typically are doing 5-30 A/B tests in parallel all day long.
So, the challenge is under Services. Can they effectively build an Amazon Tech Stack, where demand loading can be as automated as Netflix's model, which can dynamically shift compute models on the fly (from say, shopping, to the "Sire Smart @ssed Answer Engine" (SSAAe), when every one and their mother starts trying out 'Hey Siri' on the 26th). If the stacks aren't compatible, That autoshift isn't possible.
Now is the time for Cook to hire a SVP for cloud services.
Senior Vice President, Internet Software and Services
"Internet Software and Services" is code for Cloud Services
Oh and appoint someone to oversee Apple's 4 platforms too.
Senior Vice President Software Engineering
"Software Engineering" is code for Apple's 4 platforms
Let them be the face of Apple to developers. And task them with ensuring the best productivity apps are built for iPad Air first.
and then under Services, this is where the silos basically start. A Tech Stack for ITMS, a Stack for iCloud, a stack for the store, a tech stack for iMessage, a stack for apple Pay, a stack for etc. If I'm reading this correctly, they are moving to one Tech Stack, and one API model, to simplify interoperability and cross scalability.
Just look at the Apple Store. There is no reason (well, no good reason), that a site be down for hours before adding what really is... 1 page to your store front (pre-order a phone). If anything, half the store should be in 'B' testing, and then at 11:55pm, the 'b' side becomes the 'a' side, and the old 'a' dies off and is restarted as 'b'.
Look at Netflix, When was the last time you saw netflix down for anything other than a failure. And they typically are doing 5-30 A/B tests in parallel all day long.
So, the challenge is under Services. Can they effectively build an Amazon Tech Stack, where demand loading can be as automated as Netflix's model, which can dynamically shift compute models on the fly (from say, shopping, to the "Sire Smart @ssed Answer Engine" (SSAAe), when every one and their mother starts trying out 'Hey Siri' on the 26th). If the stacks aren't compatible, That autoshift isn't possible.
The actual article that this report is quoting also mentions a push to use more Open Source Software.
Apple should open a retail store at that datacenter and sell t-shirts that say "iTouched the iCloud".
In the late 1990s I think, using OS9, I signed up to a free account for Mac users on iTools. My friends marvelled that all my computers were now in sync, and that I had cloud storage at my fingertips. Then came .Mac, which I think I had to pay a small amount for, and the even better, but worse, MobileMe - dropping the iDisk I'd come to rely on. Now iCloud - and my iPhone somehow syncs, but I have a personal account and a business account and I don't want all my personal stuff shared across everyone's company devices and it's all got harder. Meanwhile Google and Microsoft have done what Apple does - come late to the party and got some traction. Google Drive seems oddly popular, but Apple seems to have lots its early lead. Time to fix that.
I remembered iTools being January 2000, and whaddaya know - the press release is still online!:
https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2000/01/05Apple-Unveils-Internet-Strategy.html
20 megabytes of free online storage, baby!
(My @mac.com address dates back to that time.)
I dont understand why the dislike on Siri's team, Siri is properly the best of the Apple Internet Services. Modern too.
For those who dont know, latest Siri has been rebuilt on Mesos, (http://mesos.apache.org/) , with their own scheduler called Jarvis ( Named after the IronMan AI ). It was announced on Mesosphere this year and it was very big news for the industry, one because first time Apple opened up what they are using in their Web Stack, second being a confirmation that Mesos is ready for REALLY big enterprise, not just hot and latest tech running startup.
What that basically means is that Apple now has its own Internal PaaS ( Platform as a Services ). The Platform will ( or hopefully ) evolve independent of the Product running on top of it like Siri, iTunes, etc.
From what i have been told / read Apple has always been relying on off the shelf solution for storage and Database, which is similar to what other big enterprise and banks uses. But Internet companies tend to built those themselves, Facebook, Yahoo and Google all uses either Internal developed solution or Open Sources solution. And Apple has been heading this way for sometime. Hopefully we see less Oracle DB and proprietary SAN.
Edit. I hope Apple built there own server as well. I have a hard time understanding why they continue to buy off the self Servers. The amount of Data going to iCloud in the coming years will be gigantic. One possible signal for this movement is Apple joining open compute project originally lead by Facebook ( http://www.opencompute.org/ )
Not to mention Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are more reputable in the Enterprise Cloud Storage business. Maybe smaller startups that run on an all Mac environment would be their target businesses.
Infrastructure is irrelevant if the basic services aren't up to snuff. iCloud email, for example, still doesn't support user-owned domains and commits the greatest sin of anti-spam, silently discarding certain "spam" emails. If it weren't for calendar and contact sync I wouldn't bother with iCloud at all, and I still don't use their email for anything that isn't throwaway.
Anyone else having this problem? It's only on the Mac, all my other iCloud services seem to be clicking...
Anyone else having this problem? It's only on the Mac, all my other iCloud services seem to be clicking...
Not here. All green on the screen as well: https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/
Not here. All green on the screen as well: https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/
Well, hmmm