Guizhou company to operate iCloud services

Preparation for operating Apple's iCloud services in the Chinese mainland by a Guizhou company are underway, local media reported on Jan 31.

Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry Co Ltd (GCBD), owned by the Guizhou provincial government, will take over iCloud services on the Chinese mainland from Feb 28.

The move marks the latest push by the US tech giant to meet local consumers' growing demands for better cloud services.

Apple said it would invest $1 billion to build a data center which will spread across 1,000 mu (66.67 hectares) in Guizhou province. Upon completion in 2020, the data center will hold all the data of Apple users in the Chinese mainland.

"This change will allow us to continue to improve the speed and reliability of our products while also complying with newly passed regulations requiring cloud services to be operated by Chinese companies," Apple said in a statement.

In a period of seven weeks starting from Jan 10 the company will send emails and other notifications of the change to its Chinese customers.

As for data security, the Chinese operator GCBD, with disaster recovery capabilities, has data privacy and security protection in place. Meanwhile, it is expected that the operation of iCloud service will generate $1 billion of profits for the company every year.

Apart from Guizhou's cool weather, stable geology, adequate power and good network facilities, it also has a well-developed big data industry - another reason why Apple chose Guizhou as its partner.