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Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microsoft in Cloud

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Re: Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microsoft in Cloud

#132
post #7

I couldn't help but laugh out loud when I saw this headline on Twitter. It's just kisses fingers . So now that everyone knows they are waffling on whether to stay in the business (and have a deadline), Microsoft and Amazon just need to increase the competitive intensity for the next few years to drive Google out and instead of cloud computing being an oligopoly it'll be a duopoly. If you're a startup you should serio…

This is a ridiculous interpretation. If Jeff Bezos sent an email to the company saying "We want retail revenue to increase by X% by 2023" would you assume that they'd shutter the whole thing if they didn't meet that goal? Of course not. Why is a goal and strategy for Google treated differently?

How is it ridiculous? The article said GCP would receive reduced invesment if that target isn't met. It's a bit hard to grow without investing, so it smells to me like a precursor to sustained engineering.

Re: Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microsoft in Cloud

#133
post #28

I'm astounded that they would seriously consider closing GCP after committing so much time, money, and effort into building it. Every time there's a GCP story on HN commenters say "I won't use it because Google can just pull the plug." I thought this opinion was silly as GCP is the #3 cloud provider in the world, not a free service like Reader. Guess I was wrong, nothing is safe. Google wants #1 or nothing at all.

I never thought they would shut down Google+ either. It may have been a “failure” in the sense of not beating Facebook, but it had enough traction among hacker circles especially that I assumed it was here to stay just as the cross-Google identity system if not a standalone Facebook-alike.

Re: Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microsoft in Cloud

#135
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From two sources. 1) The article. > The Google unit, which sells computing services to big companies, is under pressure from top management to pass Microsoft or Amazon—currently first and second, respectively, in cloud market share—or risk losing funding. 2) How Google treats all of its other "underperforming" products.

If it's profitable why do they care if it passes Amazon or Microsoft?

Pride? They want to be #1 or nothing at all?

Re: Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microsoft in Cloud

#136

Well this is one way to kill your cloud business. Even a hint that execs were considering or debating this move is enough to kill any serious company's interest in GCP. Why would you ever consider GCP over AWS/Azure knowing that the Google scythe could kill it at any time, with your suspicions confirmed by a leak this? Bonkers.

It's so stupid that they've got this reputation now. A lot of the things they've killed could've instead been sold/spun off instead. Shutting down successful services that are not successful enough by Google's standards has given them a bad rep at the same time as destroying value.

Reader could've been a successful company on its own for sure, for example. I wasn't a user of it, but there was enough people who loved it enough.

Re: Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microsoft in Cloud

#137

> If the company fails to achieve this goal, some staffers reportedly believe that Alphabet could withdraw from the market completely. If I was a paranoid person, I might think this article is a sinister plan from Amazon or Microsoft. A quote like this can easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy: managers are already wary about GCP because of Google's flaky reputation, hearing a quote like this could easily make it…

Google Cloud was always a "become number one or die" thing. Same with Google Plus.

Google has assigned so many engineers to building and running the platform. That means the platform has a high ongoing cost to provide. Unless the platform grows rapidly and grabs a significant chunk of the market, it will never be profitable at Googles current level of investment.

You can't scale a project down from 5000 engineers to just 50 and expect it to carry on running as before.

Re: Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microsoft in Cloud

#138

Point to remember- they are number 4. And beating a fast rising azure is going to be close to impossible.

Who's number 3? Who am I missing?

Ali,

Funny that China has a new law allowing them access to any data stored there, so it may stick to operating only in China...

Re: Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microsoft in Cloud

#139
post #31
post #14

I made a joke years ago about how Google would shut down GCP on a whim, ending the last shred of goodwill they had in tech. Too absurd for reality.

Did you miss that the complete headline is actually 'Google execs reportedly debated getting out of cloud computing, but instead set a goal of being a top-two player by 2023'? Or is it more the fact they considered it at all?

"If the company fails to achieve this goal, some staffers reportedly believe that Alphabet could withdraw from the market completely."

Re: Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microsoft in Cloud

#140

Well this is one way to kill your cloud business. Even a hint that execs were considering or debating this move is enough to kill any serious company's interest in GCP. Why would you ever consider GCP over AWS/Azure knowing that the Google scythe could kill it at any time, with your suspicions confirmed by a leak this? Bonkers.

It's so stupid that they've got this reputation now. A lot of the things they've killed could've instead been sold/spun off instead. Shutting down successful services that are not successful enough by Google's standards has given them a bad rep at the same time as destroying value. Reader could've been a successful company on its own for sure, for example. I wasn't a user of it, but there was enough people who loved…

It’s a well-deserved reputation. I’m glad it’s sticking
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