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Google cuts jobs at cloud-computing group

wsj.com

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Re: Google cuts jobs at cloud-computing group

#81

Post by blibble »

manigandham wrote: post #60
scarface74 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

if it was extremely profitable it would be a separate line in their financial statements (rather than being aggregated with other things)

it isn't, so draw from that what you will

Re: Google cuts jobs at cloud-computing group

#82

Post by scarface74 »

blauditore wrote: post #77
scarface74 wrote: post #32

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…

This meme bas been debunked a long time ago, but keeps on being repeated. It doesn't make much sense anyway.

And yet they are laying off people....

Re: Google cuts jobs at cloud-computing group

#83

Post by pg_is_a_butt »

scarface74 wrote: post #63
manigandham wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is it profitable for Google ?

It IS Google... what do you think all their services run on?

Re: Google cuts jobs at cloud-computing group

#84

Post by tmpz22 »

manigandham wrote: post #60
scarface74 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Snapchat was (is?) built on AppEngine and they signed a 5 year 3 billion dollar contract with GCP. I wouldn't be surprised if AppEngine is hanging by a thread outside of a few large users as GCP devs have on multiple occasions signaled new projects with the intention of replacing AppEngine (I forget which ones, feel free to verify that anecdote yourself).

Re: Google cuts jobs at cloud-computing group

#85

Post by drdeadringer »

sjg007 wrote: post #40
stygiansonic wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is correct. In many jurisdictions, when a certain number of employees are laid off in a given amount of time, they are required to disclose this to the government. For example, California has the WARN act: https://www.shouselaw.com/employment/warn-act.html

So this is a WARN act announcement?

IIRC, WARN announcements are triggered if at least 50 people are being laid off at the same time.

Re: Google cuts jobs at cloud-computing group

#86

Post by neil_s »

Nothing is happening to Google Cloud overall. This is just a small org where two teams were doing similar stuff, so they got merged. This made a few roles redundant, so those folks will be looking for new roles within Google (Cloud). How this made for a WSJ headline, IDK. I couldn't read the whole article because paywall, but the first few lines do mention that it's a tiny number of employees affected and they can look for new roles.

Note: I'm not authorized to speak for Google, but hopefully this addresses some of the panic in this comment thread.

Re: Google cuts jobs at cloud-computing group

#88

Post by killjoywashere »

WSJ has gone hard Murdoch, particularly against Google. In conjunction with comments by Peter Thiel, Trump, and other conservative commentators, it's pretty clear there's a coordinated effort to cast Facebook as a "fair and balanced" face, and to do that, they need a libtard heel, and Google is apparently it.

What's interesting is that Trump easily has more of a beef with Bezos as the owner of the Washington Post, but it's seems the conservatives have a harder time casting the world's richest man as a snowflake when he runs a brutally lean business and launches rockets.

Re: Google cuts jobs at cloud-computing group

#89

Post by mateo411 »

downerending wrote: post #24
goatherders wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a for profit company with a fiduciary responsibility to share holders. There is zero reason to find jobs for people regardless of the cash position.

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…

> It's far better to leave first than to be laid off, if you're sharp.

I think it's better to have a good exit strategy, such as another job offer, then get laid off. If you get laid off at a big company, there is usually a severance package.

Re: Google cuts jobs at cloud-computing group

#90

Post by dvirsky »

wyclif wrote: post #61
sdenton4 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'…

So...it's kind of like being Big Head working at Hooli? Hanging out on the roof, or building potato guns and piezoelectric sensors?

Finding a new role inside the company actually requires some work though.
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