Spotify is moving to Google's cloud platform

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Spotify is moving the "guts" of its service from its own data centres to Google's cloud platform, the two companies have announced.

The move, which will see Spotify end an ambitious attempt to build its own vast server farm servers, will allow the company to bring new features quicker than if it is using its own data centres. "Historically we've run our own data centres," Nicholas Harteau, VP of engineering and infrastructure at Spotify, told WIRED. "That's using space, it's buying hardware and equipment but now we're doing a big push to partner with Google on running the Spotify backend -- the guts that power the Spotify service -- in Google's cloud platform."

Over the next two years -- in what Harteau said will be a "big and complex process to move" -- Spotify will work with Google to move all of its backend to Google's platform; so far, 200,000 Spotify users have been tested on the system. It's believed the move shouldn't affect the service's performance.

Guillaume Leygues, from Google's Cloud Platform, said that using the company's services would allow Spotify staff to run complex database queries and get answers quickly. "This lets Spotify perform more frequent in-depth, interactive analysis, guiding product development, feature testing and more intelligent user-facing features," the Google staffer wrote.

The announcement builds on Spotify's introduction of video to its apps. In January, the streaming company said it would finally bring videos to Android and Apple iOS users in the UK, US, Germany, and the company's native Sweden. Company bosses said the videos will initially start as short clips from TV shows, but original programming could follow, which may be helped by the cloud switch.

Harteau explained: "It might mean that we're more able to quickly roll out new features because when we do the next crazy thing in the Spotify product we don't have to go and touch all of our infrastructure to get there. We can press a button and get a few more nodes."

Spotify, in 2013, detailed how it was working to build its backend, however its position has now changed. Harteau explained that the company had decided to move its services so that it didn't have to rely on its own resources to create and manage the homegrown data centres. "We want people working on the really valuable stuff; we don't just want people doing the stuff that keeps the lights on," Harteau said.

This article was originally published by WIRED UK