How Google Is Challenging AWS • Hacker News Board

Re: How Google Is Challenging AWS

#31

Post by ranman » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 6:27 PM UTC

bduerst wrote: post #21

aikah wrote: post #18

tldr; competition is good. Google Cloud UI is vastly superior to AWS. It's clear to me AWS didn't put a lot of effort into their interface, Google console is nice too in order to quickly experiment with the platform. On the other hand, it seems to me that AWS is still cheaper than GCloud right now.

>AWS is still cheaper than GCloud right now How so? I thought this was brought up just a week ago saying GCloud is consistently cheaper: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12993021

That article had a unique relationship with reality. A few of my comments here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12998170

(I work for AWS)

Re: How Google Is Challenging AWS

#32

Post by xyzzyz » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 6:30 PM UTC

hueving wrote: post #22

aikah wrote: post #18

tldr; competition is good. Google Cloud UI is vastly superior to AWS. It's clear to me AWS didn't put a lot of effort into their interface, Google console is nice too in order to quickly experiment with the platform. On the other hand, it seems to me that AWS is still cheaper than GCloud right now.

UI doesn't really matter for people with enough instances to care about money. Nobody is going to blow $1,000/mo because the interface is nicer.

The way it often works out is first you chose your provider because the interface is nicer, then your needs slowly grow, and at some point you you're blowing $1,000/mo on a given provider just because it had nicer interface a few years before.

Re: How Google Is Challenging AWS

#33

Post by findjashua » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 6:34 PM UTC

seregine wrote: post #25

Having worked at both places for ~4 years each, I would say Amazon is much more of a product company, and a platform is really a collection of compelling products. Amazon really puts customers first. Their platform and organization are made up of small teams that own services with well-defined interfaces, accountable for customer metrics. All profits are reinvested, so resources and perks are scarce, efficiency matte…

"rather than optimizing UX or making customers happy"

as someone who's dabbled a bit w both, I found GCP UI/UX to be far simpler than dealing w AWS

Re: How Google Is Challenging AWS

#34

Post by brianwawok » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 6:34 PM UTC

hueving wrote: post #22

aikah wrote: post #18

tldr; competition is good. Google Cloud UI is vastly superior to AWS. It's clear to me AWS didn't put a lot of effort into their interface, Google console is nice too in order to quickly experiment with the platform. On the other hand, it seems to me that AWS is still cheaper than GCloud right now.

UI doesn't really matter for people with enough instances to care about money. Nobody is going to blow $1,000/mo because the interface is nicer.

Really? Because slack is IRC with a nicer UI. There are many examples of this.

Executives love slick UIs and flashy dashboards. Executives have a lot of power.

Re: How Google Is Challenging AWS

#35

Post by mvitorino » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 6:35 PM UTC

dekhn wrote: post #30

mvitorino wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway."

I never do. Nor do I underestimate the bandwidth between cloud providers.

What magnitude are we talking about? Genuinely curious.

Re: How Google Is Challenging AWS

#36

Post by brianwawok » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 6:36 PM UTC

dekhn wrote: post #30

mvitorino wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway."

I never do. Nor do I underestimate the bandwidth between cloud providers.

Hah. What about about the egress cost? Getting 100 PB out of AWS is not cheap. (maybe it is cheap in actual cost, but not in what the end user has to pay to AWS cost).

Re: How Google Is Challenging AWS

#37

Post by mathattack » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 6:40 PM UTC

seregine wrote: post #25

Having worked at both places for ~4 years each, I would say Amazon is much more of a product company, and a platform is really a collection of compelling products. Amazon really puts customers first. Their platform and organization are made up of small teams that own services with well-defined interfaces, accountable for customer metrics. All profits are reinvested, so resources and perks are scarce, efficiency matte…

Great point on simplifying the UI being a priority. This takes a lot of coordination and willingness to say "We will drop features A, B and C to make the overall experience easier." This is ultimately both an organizational and cultural issue. Some companies optimize on centralization (historically Apple) while others have a more decentralized "empower the individual" ethos. This article from the same source highlights how Apple's centralized org is core to it's view of product integration. https://stratechery.com/2016/apples-organizational-crossroad...

When dealing with a platform, this user experience coordination becomes much more important. (Think the old Apple ecosystem versus all the crap that came pre-installed on the Wintel systems)

Re: How Google Is Challenging AWS

#38

Post by kgwgk » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 6:41 PM UTC

honkhonkpants wrote: post #2

I disagree with the central thesis of this article that Google is a product company rather than a platform company. I think that's wrong because throughout its history Google has asked itself "what if we had this?" first, and built the products around that later. Essentially the company believes that products will naturally emerge if you hire tens of thousands of engineers and deploy an unholy number of computers. I…

A "platform company" would provide a platform to its users. Unless I misunderstand your comment you say that Google has an internal platform that it uses to build products for customers, which is something different.

Re: How Google Is Challenging AWS

#39

Post by Terretta » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 6:42 PM UTC

dekhn wrote: post #11

ap22213 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be nice if they managed the transfer themselves via AWS Snowball. Sure, they would have upfront costs, but based on what I spend on AWS monthly, it's probably worth it to them.

Why would you want to move data between AWS and GCP using a hard drive? The networks between the two cloud providers are immense.

When we would roll out additional datacenters for our video delivery network, we shipped new storage to old DCs, loaded, then shipped to new DCs.

At meaningful volumes, literally months faster than using tier 1 backbone, and a fraction of the cost as well.

Re: How Google Is Challenging AWS

#40

Post by naner » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 6:45 PM UTC

mixmastamyk wrote: post #27

I would like to try out google cloud due to its lower costs, but don't trust them with my data--partially perception I know. Also Amazon has never failed me over the last 15 years I've been doing business with them, so I'll probably continue despite the clunkiness of their products.

I'm not sure if Google's commercial products are as bad as their consumer-facing offerings, but if we can't get someone on the phone when a support issue arises then we'd never consider using them for any cloud services.