Apple (News - Alert) has reportedly tapped Google to provide it with hosting for its iCloud services in what CRN and Fast Company say is a $400-600 engagement. This is big news not only because it involves two of the largest and most important companies in tech today, but also due to the fact that Apple is an existing user of Amazon Web Services (News - Alert), which pioneered and is the leader in the cloud computing arena.

“Neither Apple nor Google would comment on the reports, but an Amazon spokesperson suggested to CRN that they hadn’t lost Apple’s business,” the Fast Company article says. "’It’s kind of a puzzler to us because vendors who understand doing business with enterprises respect [non-disclosure agreements] with their customers and don’t imply competitive defection where it doesn’t exist,’ the spokesperson said.”

Reports also indicate Apple was never exclusive with AWS anyway, and also leverages Microsoft (News - Alert) for some of this kind of thing. And Apple’s potential business for hosting providers would seem to be increasing as the company continues to expand its data center holdings. Ireland, Phoenix and Reno are among the places in which Apple is building data centers as part of its Project Huckleberry effort.

While AWS has built a big business around cloud computing and Google is making strides in this arena, several of the big telcos that made significant investments in this area and now dialing their efforts back and moving to sell off those assets.

“Carriers such as AT&T (News - Alert) and Verizon are moving away from the public cloud business due to their inability to gain market share against established competitors such as Amazon Web Services,” says Technology Business Research senior analyst Chris Antlitz.

In December it was revealed that IBM would take over some AT&T data center assets. Around the same time there were reports that CenturyLink no longer wants to own data centers, despite having invested $2.5 billion in Savvis just a few years ago. And in January Verizon put its data center assets (including 48 locations) on the block in what it hopes will yield $2.5 billion.

AT&T, Verizon (News - Alert), and other CSPs say they will instead focus on delivering network connectivity and value-added services related to the offerings of leading cloud service providers.