4 ms·

I wonder what Apple's server infrastructure looks like? They aren't programming it all in WebObjects [1] are they? Do they use linux and/or freeBSD? Of all the

I wonder what Apple's server infrastructure looks like? They aren't programming it all in WebObjects [1] are they? Do they use linux and/or freeBSD? Of all the things Apple does, their "cloud" seems the weakest product. Apple is the only big software company that doesn't develop server-side technologies. If I was the boss of Apple I'd standardize on FreeBSD and Golang today! But, I'm not... obviously :) [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebObjects http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebObjects

nwh 13y ago
I've brought this up before, but it's a mix of everything, and all pretty bad. > If you've ever poked around with the way that Apple's website works, you can see that the entire place is a huge mess. There's old servers running ancient (pre-2004) perl scripts alongside the brand new iCloud gear. I can't imagine how the authentication for AppleID is working as login details still work on the ancient pages (think pinstripes and glassy buttons). Depending what URL you hit, the webserver is using php3, php4, perl, python or maybe WebObjects (java). > At one point I wrote a scraper that was targeting one of their product pages, and kept getting random, unexplainable results. It turned out that one of their product areas was behind a round-robin load balancer, with three completely different apache versions on each server. The page was dying on one but not the other two. In the end I just had to repetitively scrape until I hit a good response. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6078854 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6078854
- AlexanderDhoore 13y ago
  Wow, that's exactly what I was afraid of... You can tell it's absolutely not their priority. It's more of an afterthought. "Oh, yeah, btw, we need some servers as well, but first do all the other stuff."
Terretta 13y ago
> Apple is the only big software company that doesn't develop server-side technologies. iCloud storage, iTunes Match, iMessage, to name just a few. If you stop to think how these all just work across devices and desktops, and at what volumes, you'll realize they've got some server chops.
- AlexanderDhoore 13y ago
  I meant they don't create any server-side language or framework... They will have lots of infrastructure and code, no doubt.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- lazerwalker 13y ago
  If you've ever used iTunes Match, you'd know it's a stretch to say that it "just works".
  - chiph 13y ago
    You can say the same thing about iCloud. I'm not a Microsoft fan-boy, but I have to say that SkyDrive does what I expect it to.
    - harrytuttle 13y ago
      Sometimes. I've had a couple of files deleted which I was not happy about. For that alone, they can get screwed.
- nwh 13y ago
  They mostly run on Microsoft Azure and Amazon EC2. They also don't really work. iMessage is unreliable at best, and iTunes match just makes home taping look preferable.
  - _djo_ 13y ago
    If that were true they wouldn't need the large data centres they're building. My understanding, from when the references to Azure and Amazon CloudFront (not EC2) were first discovered in iCloud traffic, was that Apple was using Microsoft and Amazon's CDN services, amongst others, to serve static content. I've seen no indication that the core guts of iMessage et al live anywhere but inside Apple's own data centres.

nwh 13y ago

I've brought this up before, but it's a mix of everything, and all pretty bad. > If you've ever poked around with the way that Apple's website works, you can see that the entire place is a huge mess. There's old servers running ancient (pre-2004) perl scripts alongside the brand new iCloud gear. I can't imagine how the authentication for AppleID is working as login details still work on the ancient pages (think pinstripes and glassy buttons). Depending what URL you hit, the webserver is using php3, php4, perl, python or maybe WebObjects (java). > At one point I wrote a scraper that was targeting one of their product pages, and kept getting random, unexplainable results. It turned out that one of their product areas was behind a round-robin load balancer, with three completely different apache versions on each server. The page was dying on one but not the other two. In the end I just had to repetitively scrape until I hit a good response. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6078854 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6078854

AlexanderDhoore 13y ago
Wow, that's exactly what I was afraid of... You can tell it's absolutely not their priority. It's more of an afterthought. "Oh, yeah, btw, we need some servers as well, but first do all the other stuff."

Terretta 13y ago

> Apple is the only big software company that doesn't develop server-side technologies. iCloud storage, iTunes Match, iMessage, to name just a few. If you stop to think how these all just work across devices and desktops, and at what volumes, you'll realize they've got some server chops.

AlexanderDhoore 13y ago
I meant they don't create any server-side language or framework... They will have lots of infrastructure and code, no doubt.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
lazerwalker 13y ago
If you've ever used iTunes Match, you'd know it's a stretch to say that it "just works".
- chiph 13y ago
  You can say the same thing about iCloud. I'm not a Microsoft fan-boy, but I have to say that SkyDrive does what I expect it to.
  - harrytuttle 13y ago
    Sometimes. I've had a couple of files deleted which I was not happy about. For that alone, they can get screwed.
nwh 13y ago
They mostly run on Microsoft Azure and Amazon EC2. They also don't really work. iMessage is unreliable at best, and iTunes match just makes home taping look preferable.
- _djo_ 13y ago
  If that were true they wouldn't need the large data centres they're building. My understanding, from when the references to Azure and Amazon CloudFront (not EC2) were first discovered in iCloud traffic, was that Apple was using Microsoft and Amazon's CDN services, amongst others, to serve static content. I've seen no indication that the core guts of iMessage et al live anywhere but inside Apple's own data centres.