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Alphabet earnings show Google Cloud on $10B run rate

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Re: Alphabet earnings show Google Cloud on $10B run rate

#51

Aside: This was the first time I've tried to read a techcrunch article in Austria (or the EU in general). The splash screen implies I must consent to tracking cookies or I can't view their content. Is that not illegal?

Per GDPR it is not, you can't be banned from something if you does not give you consent. But nobody cares, if you have smart lawyers they can argue that those consents are essential for a given page to work and everything is compliant... The same with being opted out from consents by default. Nobody cares too - to opt out you typically need to click through maze of screens searching for small print links that let you say no. That's also against GDPR, BTW.

For now GDPR seems like one more toothless EU regulation. Maybe they manage to catch some big US company and make them pay a few millions just to make a big show and justify the existence of GDPR. Maybe they will catch some poor guy maintaining forum for some hobby group and does not provide "right to be forgotten" functionality (that's why effectively all independent forums are going away in favor of Facebook - good job, EU). But I doubt GDPR will manage to give people more privacy.

I hope that people themselves will figure out what's going on and start fighting back (by using browser plugins, stubbornly reporting misbehaving sites, trying to engage authorities to enforce GDPR, etc.). If yes, maybe GDPR will turn out to be something valuable, for now, it is not.

Re: Alphabet earnings show Google Cloud on $10B run rate

#52

Aside: This was the first time I've tried to read a techcrunch article in Austria (or the EU in general). The splash screen implies I must consent to tracking cookies or I can't view their content. Is that not illegal?

https://archive.md/kjOTs

Re: Alphabet earnings show Google Cloud on $10B run rate

#54
post #2

Meh. I'd wish Microsoft and Google would start separating their actual cloud platform (Azure, GCP) revenues from their "cloud" SaaS revenue (Office 365, G Suite). It'd make comparisons to AWS a lot more meaningful. Edit: Apparently Microsoft is already doing this.

It’s a little unrelated but Azure and Office 365 are becoming the same thing in large enterprise, utilising the same Azure AD, letting you run the same powershell/python managed services on your office 365 platform from your Azure platform. Utilising things like OIOSAML for multi-organisational setups for IDM with a mix of local, azure AD and office 365 account management.

I personally prefer things like digital ocean or even heroku becaus they are so much easier to use and manage, but it’s really hard to build a business case on non-azure when you have 365, and there is no alternative to 365 if you’re in a GDPR sector.

We have plenty of procurement projects that are hosted in AWS by private suppliers, so it’s not like we’re somehow against other cloud vendors, it just doesn’t make sense to not chose Azure when you have 365, because that means you’re already partly there and already have the Microsoft certified and trained it staff.

Re: Alphabet earnings show Google Cloud on $10B run rate

#55
post #43

Does anyone know if there are numbers somewhere for how much energy the different cloud providers use? Would be interesting to see which is more efficient from that perspective for those of us who care about such things. Energy per $ revenue or even better per compute would be helpful.

This needs to include the energy cost of data transmission to/from cloud data centers as well for a fair comparison. These server farms don't exist in isolation.

Re: Alphabet earnings show Google Cloud on $10B run rate

#56
post #2

Meh. I'd wish Microsoft and Google would start separating their actual cloud platform (Azure, GCP) revenues from their "cloud" SaaS revenue (Office 365, G Suite). It'd make comparisons to AWS a lot more meaningful. Edit: Apparently Microsoft is already doing this.

What are you trying to decide based on their cloud platform revenue? I'm genuinely curious as to why it matters if they are huge or actually the largest on the planet.

A fair market comparison and based on that, where to invest.

Re: Alphabet earnings show Google Cloud on $10B run rate

#57
post #55
post #43

Does anyone know if there are numbers somewhere for how much energy the different cloud providers use? Would be interesting to see which is more efficient from that perspective for those of us who care about such things. Energy per $ revenue or even better per compute would be helpful.

This needs to include the energy cost of data transmission to/from cloud data centers as well for a fair comparison. These server farms don't exist in isolation.

Only if you assume that there are substantial differences in those costs between the different cloud providers.

Re: Alphabet earnings show Google Cloud on $10B run rate

#58
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IANAL, but why would it be illegal. Isn’t that like saying a company can’t charge you for a product if you don’t want to pay for it. Tech crunch chooses tracking as its fee for reading its content. The law simply states that they must notify you of said tracking. It’s not a public service, and the content is generally pretty crap anyway.

Because under GDPR services cannot be conditional on giving unneeded personal information. How well this is enforced is a different matter.

Tracking and advertising cookies are hardly personal information as defined by GDPR, which has a very specific and well defined meaning - name, phone numbers, addresses, government-issued IDs.

Re: Alphabet earnings show Google Cloud on $10B run rate

#59
post #58
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because under GDPR services cannot be conditional on giving unneeded personal information. How well this is enforced is a different matter.

Tracking and advertising cookies are hardly personal information as defined by GDPR, which has a very specific and well defined meaning - name, phone numbers, addresses, government-issued IDs.

GDPR explicitly considers ANY information which identifies you — even pseudonymously generated identifiers, or IPs, or similar stuff — as PII.

Re: Alphabet earnings show Google Cloud on $10B run rate

#60
post #43

Does anyone know if there are numbers somewhere for how much energy the different cloud providers use? Would be interesting to see which is more efficient from that perspective for those of us who care about such things. Energy per $ revenue or even better per compute would be helpful.

Google found this: https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-google-microsoft-green-cl...

so amazon the worst. google does quite well.
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