Apple Acquires Cloud Networking Startup Union Bay Networks, Opens Seattle Office

[MacRumors]

Apple acquired Seattle-based cloud networking startup Union Bay Networks sometime in the last couple of months and has opened an office in the city that houses more than 30 engineers, reports GeekWire. The site uncovered Apple's acquisition and Seattle office after former Union Bay Networks co-founder Benn Bollay posted a job opening for a Systems Software Engineer that read "Ever wanted to work at Apple, but didn't want to live in Cupertino?"

Apple later confirmed the acquisition of Union Bay Networks to The Seattle Times, providing its standard acquisition statement: Apple "buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."

Union Bay Networks was a stealth startup focused on "enabling the next generation of networking for cloud computing and software defined datacenters," and seven out of nine former employees are said to have been hired by Apple, moving to an unknown office location.

Apple's Seattle office is already home to more than 30 employees, and the company is hiring more, posting two software engineering positions in the city last week. Both positions mention a focus on the design and development of core infrastructure services, and both mention iCloud, suggesting Seattle is being positioned as the hub for Apple's future cloud development projects.

Article Link: Apple Acquires Cloud Networking Startup Union Bay Networks, Opens Seattle Office

 

[ethanwa79]

Love Seattle, it's where I was born and raised (now live in Windermere, FL). Surprised Apple didn't already have an office there considering it's such a tech hub.

 

[lewisd25]

Yeah...very stealthy.

 

[PowerBook-G5]

Yeah perhaps this new office will straighten out iCloud Drive and develop an app for it, to be included in the next iOS 8 release (8.2?)!

 

[dagamer34]

Apple opens office in Seattle, translation, Apple hopes to poach engineers great at cloud from Amazon and Microsoft.

 

[chleuasme]

This reminds me,
Have there ever been rumors/leaks about Bertrand Serlet's Upthere startup? Or is it dead now?

 

[duaneu]

Great news. It's about time Apple had a presence here.

 

[smulji]

This reminds me,
Have there ever been rumors/leaks about Bertrand Serlet's Upthere startup? Or is it dead now?

Unfortunately, this is all the information there is;

https://www.upthere.com/

Sometimes I think he should be SVP of Software & Services at Apple instead of Eddy Cue.

 

[goMac]

This reminds me,
Have there ever been rumors/leaks about Bertrand Serlet's Upthere startup? Or is it dead now?

I've still heard rumblings as of somewhat recently.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Huh. I work with SoftLayer at IBM, so I feel like I'm probably qualified to work in this new division. Unfortunately, Seattle, like Cupertino, just seems too far away for me. Maybe I'll apply anyways. I think Apple has an office which works on Siri somewhere near me, but I don't have experience with voice recognition or TTS, beyond having used Flint in one project a few years ago...

 

[spectrumfox]

Only good can come of Apple getting better at the cloud.

Definitely can't get any worse.

 

[Mashurrab]

Apple standard acquisition statement

Apple buys Google:
"Apple "buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."
Apple buys Microsoft:
"Apple "buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."
Apple buys A country:
"Apple "buys smaller technology countries from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."

 

[xARx2]

cloud computing and software defined datacenters

Besides iCloud, what other ways can Apple integrate this into its system?

 

[MattInOz]

So after you peal away a layer or two of buzz words...
What are these guys good at?

 

[InfoTime]

With all the rain they get in Seattle it makes sense to headquarter your cloud development there.

 

[Bubba Satori]

So after you peal away a layer or two of buzz words...
What are these guys good at?

Making WiFi work?

 

[bluespark]

Huh. I work with SoftLayer at IBM, so I feel like I'm probably qualified to work in this new division. Unfortunately, Seattle, like Cupertino, just seems too far away for me. Maybe I'll apply anyways. I think Apple has an office which works on Siri somewhere near me, but I don't have experience with voice recognition or TTS, beyond having used Flint in one project a few years ago...

So what you're saying is that various specific and individualized considerations govern certain personal decisions you may or may not make in the future? Got it.

 

[Col4bin]

Only good can come of Apple getting better at the cloud.

Definitely can't get any worse.

My thoughts exactly

 

[CrazyForApple]

taking baby steps to follow Steve's dream.

 

[architected]

iCloud integration? What does this mean?

http://blossary.com/EN:Union_Bay_Networks_

 

[usarioclave]

Only good can come of Apple getting better at the cloud.

Definitely can't get any worse.

iTunes has had surprisingly few outages over its ultra-long history (2003!). I wonder how much WebObjects code is left out there?

 

[The Barron]

So, how much did Apple spend for this "startup?"

Anybody venture a guess other than a few geeks are now "set" for a long time?

 

[Patrick Burns]

just had my bi annual total iTunes match f***k up. so disheartening

can't even sync playlists across devices. duplicate playlists appearing after Match updating. can't sync manually because a bug prevents me from turning iTunes match off on phone. phone hangs whenever I try to delete Music data in system preferences. at least the uploading step has been working well for a few months.

I've lost faith that Apple will get better at this. I'd rather see them tackle this by having more competent cloud-minded people on the executive team than just solving it through acquisitions.

Then again, Satya Nadella annoys the hell out of my with his corporate-speak.

Meh. Grumble grumble.

 

[RoccoFan]

Besides iCloud, what other ways can Apple integrate this into its system?

Improve iMatch. I got it recently just to find out it's garbage. I bought a used iPod Touch 5th gen with only 16GB. I figured i could use iMatch to "quickly" swap out playlists on the go. No such luck. Plus I can't pull in audiobooks I own outside of iTunes. I go through a ton of audiobooks each month.

 

[johnnyturbouk]

Only good can come of Apple getting better at the cloud.

Definitely can't get any worse.

Please don't tempt fate #