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Google cuts jobs at cloud-computing group

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Re: Google cuts jobs at cloud-computing group

#51

December 2019 “Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microsoft in Cloud“ https://www.theinformation.com/articles/google-brass-set-202... The clock is ticking for Google Cloud. The Google unit, which sells computing services to big companies, is under pressure from top management to pass Amazon or Microsoft—currently first and second, respectively, in cloud market share—or risk losing funding. While the co…

What are the Vegas odds that they blow the whole thing up if they don't end up #1?

Pretty low considering the growing market size. We are just at the beginning of cloud movement and it’s already generating significant revenue

Re: Google cuts jobs at cloud-computing group

#52
post #39
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not an announcement as much as a legal obligation to disclose, and news sources just pick up on it.

I don’t believe that. I’ve been at public companies that reorg mid level with no announcement.

It doesn’t have to do with public or private. It’s based on the number of employees affected as well as some other factors. Check out the WARN Act.

Re: Google cuts jobs at cloud-computing group

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the analogy: You don’t get nine women in a room to make a baby in one month.

If you assemble a 9+ stage pipeline, you may reach a point where you produce approximately one baby each month.

That's throughput, not latency.

Re: Google cuts jobs at cloud-computing group

#54

December 2019 “Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microsoft in Cloud“ https://www.theinformation.com/articles/google-brass-set-202... The clock is ticking for Google Cloud. The Google unit, which sells computing services to big companies, is under pressure from top management to pass Amazon or Microsoft—currently first and second, respectively, in cloud market share—or risk losing funding. While the co…

What are the Vegas odds that they blow the whole thing up if they don't end up #1?

Given Google’s penchant for cancelling projects and their inability to do anything profitably outside of advertising?

Re: Google cuts jobs at cloud-computing group

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the Vegas odds that they blow the whole thing up if they don't end up #1?

Pretty low considering the growing market size. We are just at the beginning of cloud movement and it’s already generating significant revenue

Revenue != profit.

And isn’t that the pitch of every startup? We are worth $billions because the size of the market is $billions x 10 if we only capture $a_small_percentage.

Re: Google cuts jobs at cloud-computing group

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a couple: 1. Google's tech staffers are supposed to be some of the top people in the world, and Google spends a considerable amount of resources hiring them. It seems foolish not to keep them on the bench a bit, unless Google foresees that it will be shrinking soon. 2. The people not laid off will very much notice their colleagues being zapped the moment they're not needed. They will rationally tilt towards le…

You haven’t heard about Netflix’s policy.... https://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664 “We’re a team, not a family.” They “hire, develop, and cut smartly”. It doesn’t seem to have hurt their recruitment.

[deleted]

Re: Google cuts jobs at cloud-computing group

#58
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've personally been through this twice at Google. The company definitely provides a very attentive set of resources to help you find a new position within the company, but I've always been able to find a new project on my own. That said, the more flexibility you have the easier it is to find a new position. This naturally favors some people over others. In my most recent case, it ended up being a bit more challengin…

So... Like... What do you do in the interim? Not work, look for teams, and still get paid a shit ton of money? Do you do some training on the side? Work on a side project? How long does it take to find the new team?

From the couple people I know who have done this, I think it's pretty choose-your-own-adventure... Get paid to look for your new job, with very few actual responsibilities.

It's worthwhile to compare this relative downtime to ramp-up time for new hires... who also generally spend a couple-few months being fairly useless (though working hard at it).

And googlers being googlers, there's a decent chance that the 'down' time turns into interesting learning or side project time.

Re: Google cuts jobs at cloud-computing group

#59
post #55

Google generated $8.9 billion in cloud sales last year, up 52.7% from $5.8 billion in 2018 and $4.1 billion the year prior. Doesn't sound like Google's cloud business is in trouble.

If it costs $10bn a year to run that would mean it represents a $1.1bn loss, and it should be killed if Google can't turn it around. Revenue is a terrible metric to judge something on.

Re: Google cuts jobs at cloud-computing group

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the Vegas odds that they blow the whole thing up if they don't end up #1?

Given Google’s penchant for cancelling projects and their inability to do anything profitably outside of advertising?

Cloud computing is already extremely profitable, and well above their 10-figure line for a sustainable project.

AppEngine has been around for more than a decade. GCP might not catch up to AWS but it's not going away.

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