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Snap commits $2B over 5 years for Google Cloud infrastructure

techcrunch.com

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Re: Snap commits $2B over 5 years for Google Cloud infrastructure

#31

Post by [deleted] »

sitkack wrote: post #29
toomuchtodo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why opt for Google if you're going to use containers in Kubernetes? You then become cloud agnostic. You can even move to your own datacenter at some point (relatively) easily. Dropbox built out their own environment (and did it migrating 500PB out of S3) [1] [1a]. As did Twitter [2]. And Facebook [3]. And GitLab [4] (too soon?) As well as Mixpanel [5]. Even Twilio is multi-cloud (last time I checked it was split betw…

But that is one of the outs that Kube gives you. Start on Kube/GCE and then if needing, you can migrate to colo boxes, and dynamically even. The beauty of a Kube based cloud platform is you can literally start anywhere, go anywhere.

[deleted]

Re: Snap commits $2B over 5 years for Google Cloud infrastructure

#32

Post by simonebrunozzi »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #22
whalesalad wrote: post #2

If I could do it all over again I would probably opt for Google. The Kubernetes support is wonderful and the overall user experience blows AWS out of the water.

Why opt for Google if you're going to use containers in Kubernetes? You then become cloud agnostic. You can even move to your own datacenter at some point (relatively) easily. Dropbox built out their own environment (and did it migrating 500PB out of S3) [1] [1a]. As did Twitter [2]. And Facebook [3]. And GitLab [4] (too soon?) As well as Mixpanel [5]. Even Twilio is multi-cloud (last time I checked it was split betw…

Easily move? It seems to me that you have no serious experience in the real world. There's something called "data gravity", and the non-secondary issue of how to migrate a "live" system (in production) from one cloud to another over the course of typically several weeks.

Moving from one cloud to another, even with containers, is never easy at large scale.

(source: I have worked at AWS for 6 years, at VMware for 2, and I've seen hundreds of clients go through this exercise)

Re: Snap commits $2B over 5 years for Google Cloud infrastructure

#33

Post by smallegan »

pbarnes_1 wrote: post #27
user5994461 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is surely a way to turn that into "accounting debt" that will cancel lots of taxes and save a lot of money one way or another.

That's... just normal expenses. This is how things operate.

It always boggles my mind how often I come across people that don't understand how our tax system works...

Re: Snap commits $2B over 5 years for Google Cloud infrastructure

#34

Post by kevindong »

argonaut wrote: post #23
filereaper wrote: post #20

I'm confused by this high cost, sure you might need lots of compute, but storage tends to dominate over the long term. Isn't Snapchat supposed to delete data after 30s or whatever? Why this insanely high cost? Can somebody shed some light.

1. There are also stories (last 24 hours). These are often video clips. 2. Like Whatsapp, server has to store the message until the receiver is online again (until they open the app). 3. Whatever systems they use for advertising, tracking, profiling, and analytics is probably a significant chunk of their backend.

> 2. Like Whatsapp, server has to store the message until the receiver is online again (until they open the app).

The server actually has to store it for a maximum of 30 days [0]. Snaps get deleted after 30 days (even if they're unopened). They're deleted immediately once the Snapchat servers get confirmation they've been viewed.

[0]: https://www.snap.com/en-US/news/post/how-snaps-are-stored-an...

Re: Snap commits $2B over 5 years for Google Cloud infrastructure

#35

Post by andrenotgiant »

hemancuso wrote: post #3

So they hit $400m of revenue in 2016 and have committed to spend at least that much on infrastructure each year for the next 5 years? After all the costs for staffing and everything else they better I hope they achieve amazing growth if they ever intend to profit.

I think Techcrunch read:

  We have committed to spend $2 billion with Google Cloud over the next five years
and decided "that's $2B/5=$400M per year."

In reality, it's probably more like $200M, $300M, $400M, $500M, $600M

Re: Snap commits $2B over 5 years for Google Cloud infrastructure

#36

Post by grzm »

smallegan wrote: post #33
pbarnes_1 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's... just normal expenses. This is how things operate.

It always boggles my mind how often I come across people that don't understand how our tax system works...

Ha! Assuming we're discussing the US, I'm consistently amazed at how complicated it is. The number of tax accountants and wide success of TurboTax lend credence to the idea that it's more complicated than a lot of people want to deal with.

Re: Snap commits $2B over 5 years for Google Cloud infrastructure

#37

Post by smallegan »

grzm wrote: post #36
smallegan wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It always boggles my mind how often I come across people that don't understand how our tax system works...

Ha! Assuming we're discussing the US, I'm consistently amazed at how complicated it is. The number of tax accountants and wide success of TurboTax lend credence to the idea that it's more complicated than a lot of people want to deal with.

I guess I should have been more specific. Really I mean the basics like how tax brackets and deductions work.

Re: Snap commits $2B over 5 years for Google Cloud infrastructure

#38

Post by angryteabag »

Can I get someone's opinion on Snap? Is it worth paying attention to?

My understanding is that it's a package manager that installs applications in their own isolated Linux sandbox, meaning you can install/distribute them on any distribution.. right?

Does that mean software like node.js or nginx/apache will be available via Snap?

Re: Snap commits $2B over 5 years for Google Cloud infrastructure

#39

Post by ac29 »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #15
hemancuso wrote: post #3

So they hit $400m of revenue in 2016 and have committed to spend at least that much on infrastructure each year for the next 5 years? After all the costs for staffing and everything else they better I hope they achieve amazing growth if they ever intend to profit.

I would invest in Snapchat at any valuation that is below Facebook's. Sounds crazy but the first time I opened the app (on a friend's phone) and it landed me on a camera screen (almost forcing to contribute content to use the product) I felt like the guys were going to win whatever space they were in.

Facebook is worth $377B today. Could you explain why Snapchat is or will be worth that much?

Re: Snap commits $2B over 5 years for Google Cloud infrastructure

#40

Post by dom2 »

angryteabag wrote: post #38

Can I get someone's opinion on Snap? Is it worth paying attention to? My understanding is that it's a package manager that installs applications in their own isolated Linux sandbox, meaning you can install/distribute them on any distribution.. right? Does that mean software like node.js or nginx/apache will be available via Snap?

I can't tell if you're joking but Snap is Snapchat. So not a package manager at all.
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