<story><title>Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microsoft in Cloud</title><url>https://www.theinformation.com/articles/google-brass-set-2023-as-deadline-to-beat-amazon-microsoft-in-cloud?pu=hackernewsyw3xln&amp;utm_source=hackernews&amp;utm_medium=unlock</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>res0nat0r</author><text>The issue is that folks here think GCP is the same thing as Google Reader. That&amp;#x27;s absurd.&lt;p&gt;Google is currently building a massive $500 million datacenter outside of Reno as we speak, and has 10+ &lt;i&gt;billion&lt;/i&gt; invested in their datacenter cloud offering buildout this year alone.&lt;p&gt;GCP and the entire physical infrastructure isn&amp;#x27;t going to get &amp;quot;turned off&amp;quot; if it isn&amp;#x27;t #1 in the market in 3 years, that&amp;#x27;s just silly.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;9to5google.com&amp;#x2F;2019&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;google-data-center-nevada&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;9to5google.com&amp;#x2F;2019&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;google-data-center-nevada&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.rgj.com&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;money&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;2019&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;13&amp;#x2F;google-investing-13-b-data-centers-2019-including-nevada&amp;#x2F;2861826002&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.rgj.com&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;money&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;2019&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;13&amp;#x2F;google-i...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>QuinnyPig</author><text>This is the entire problem. Swap “Google” for “AWS” in the article and you’d have legions of folks calling foul on the article. Instead, most folks are nodding along to the article going “yep, seems like something Google would do all right…”&lt;p&gt;Google’s problem remains its reputation for turning things off.</text></item><item><author>ogre_codes</author><text>&amp;gt; So it&amp;#x27;s not about being #1, it&amp;#x27;s about being profitable.&lt;p&gt;The problem Google has with the developer community is largely around the fact that Google has a long history of pulling the rug out from our feet. There have been 3 stories on HN &lt;i&gt;in the past couple weeks alone&lt;/i&gt; about Google products which have either been dropped or changed significantly such that they are no longer viable for developers to use.&lt;p&gt;Google has lost a lot of trust in the community and if Google management wants to avoid this kind of reaction, they need to build a reputation for stability. Years of dropping products people rely has eroded much of the good will people used to have for Google.&lt;p&gt;Amazon doesn&amp;#x27;t drop products.
Microsoft has spent decades building a reputation for having a long term reliable product road-map.&lt;p&gt;Google is fickle and doesn&amp;#x27;t seem to care when they screw people over by changing terms underneath us. As the old saying goes—fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.</text></item><item><author>altgoogler</author><text>Googler here.  My opinions are my own; I have no non-public knowledge on this topic.&lt;p&gt;I do not understand the hyperbole around this report.  Nowhere does it say that Google plans to shutter GCP if it doesn&amp;#x27;t reach #1 by 2023.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; said people with knowledge of the matter.&lt;p&gt;As in, people who may not have even been at said meeting which took place nearly two years ago, under a different VP and now a different CEO, and saw some meeting notes.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The group’s leaders told staffers that if Google couldn’t reach a certain size with its computing and storage business—two of the most commonly used cloud services—the cloud unit might never become profitable, the person said. To reach such scale, they said, Google would need to be in a top two position in the market.&lt;p&gt;So it&amp;#x27;s not about being #1, it&amp;#x27;s about being profitable.&lt;p&gt;In other words, this was a conversation about literally every product at an executive level ever.&lt;p&gt;You set goals, you decide what happens when those goals are met.  Furthermore, there is no concrete assertion here that what happens if this deadline is passed. &amp;quot;at risk of losing funding&amp;quot; can literally mean anything from changing FTE allocation to capital expenses to a million other things that get discussed at an executive level.&lt;p&gt;And finally:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; A Google spokesperson declined to comment prior to the publication of this story, but after it appeared released the following statement: &amp;quot;Reports of these conversations from 2018 are simply not accurate.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;There may be some truth to these accounts--reality is often between the lines--but this is extremely soft on details and actual first person accounts.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Lammy</author><text>The issue for me isn&amp;#x27;t Reader itself but what it says about the disconnect between Google management and us, the users of Google products. That seems to have happened around the time Google went from _having_ a &amp;quot;user base&amp;quot; to being effectively ubiquitous. I can&amp;#x27;t speak for others, but Google of the 2000s &amp;quot;got&amp;quot; the hacker&amp;#x2F;nerd mindset in a way that was the closest thing to empathy I&amp;#x27;ve ever felt from a corporation. That sounds naive to write down here in almost-2020, but that was how it felt at the time. When Reader died, so did that feeling, and now all of us are running around unsure if the Google products we personally care about are the ones Google management care about. Leaks like this one do not inspire confidence in that.</text></comment>
<story><title>Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microsoft in Cloud</title><url>https://www.theinformation.com/articles/google-brass-set-2023-as-deadline-to-beat-amazon-microsoft-in-cloud?pu=hackernewsyw3xln&amp;utm_source=hackernews&amp;utm_medium=unlock</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>res0nat0r</author><text>The issue is that folks here think GCP is the same thing as Google Reader. That&amp;#x27;s absurd.&lt;p&gt;Google is currently building a massive $500 million datacenter outside of Reno as we speak, and has 10+ &lt;i&gt;billion&lt;/i&gt; invested in their datacenter cloud offering buildout this year alone.&lt;p&gt;GCP and the entire physical infrastructure isn&amp;#x27;t going to get &amp;quot;turned off&amp;quot; if it isn&amp;#x27;t #1 in the market in 3 years, that&amp;#x27;s just silly.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;9to5google.com&amp;#x2F;2019&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;google-data-center-nevada&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;9to5google.com&amp;#x2F;2019&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;google-data-center-nevada&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.rgj.com&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;money&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;2019&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;13&amp;#x2F;google-investing-13-b-data-centers-2019-including-nevada&amp;#x2F;2861826002&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.rgj.com&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;money&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;2019&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;13&amp;#x2F;google-i...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>QuinnyPig</author><text>This is the entire problem. Swap “Google” for “AWS” in the article and you’d have legions of folks calling foul on the article. Instead, most folks are nodding along to the article going “yep, seems like something Google would do all right…”&lt;p&gt;Google’s problem remains its reputation for turning things off.</text></item><item><author>ogre_codes</author><text>&amp;gt; So it&amp;#x27;s not about being #1, it&amp;#x27;s about being profitable.&lt;p&gt;The problem Google has with the developer community is largely around the fact that Google has a long history of pulling the rug out from our feet. There have been 3 stories on HN &lt;i&gt;in the past couple weeks alone&lt;/i&gt; about Google products which have either been dropped or changed significantly such that they are no longer viable for developers to use.&lt;p&gt;Google has lost a lot of trust in the community and if Google management wants to avoid this kind of reaction, they need to build a reputation for stability. Years of dropping products people rely has eroded much of the good will people used to have for Google.&lt;p&gt;Amazon doesn&amp;#x27;t drop products.
Microsoft has spent decades building a reputation for having a long term reliable product road-map.&lt;p&gt;Google is fickle and doesn&amp;#x27;t seem to care when they screw people over by changing terms underneath us. As the old saying goes—fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.</text></item><item><author>altgoogler</author><text>Googler here.  My opinions are my own; I have no non-public knowledge on this topic.&lt;p&gt;I do not understand the hyperbole around this report.  Nowhere does it say that Google plans to shutter GCP if it doesn&amp;#x27;t reach #1 by 2023.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; said people with knowledge of the matter.&lt;p&gt;As in, people who may not have even been at said meeting which took place nearly two years ago, under a different VP and now a different CEO, and saw some meeting notes.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The group’s leaders told staffers that if Google couldn’t reach a certain size with its computing and storage business—two of the most commonly used cloud services—the cloud unit might never become profitable, the person said. To reach such scale, they said, Google would need to be in a top two position in the market.&lt;p&gt;So it&amp;#x27;s not about being #1, it&amp;#x27;s about being profitable.&lt;p&gt;In other words, this was a conversation about literally every product at an executive level ever.&lt;p&gt;You set goals, you decide what happens when those goals are met.  Furthermore, there is no concrete assertion here that what happens if this deadline is passed. &amp;quot;at risk of losing funding&amp;quot; can literally mean anything from changing FTE allocation to capital expenses to a million other things that get discussed at an executive level.&lt;p&gt;And finally:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; A Google spokesperson declined to comment prior to the publication of this story, but after it appeared released the following statement: &amp;quot;Reports of these conversations from 2018 are simply not accurate.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;There may be some truth to these accounts--reality is often between the lines--but this is extremely soft on details and actual first person accounts.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>BurritoAlPastor</author><text>Agreed that Google isn’t going to announce one day that they’re going to demolish all the datacenters in 30 days, but that doesn’t mean that GCP has any guaranteed future either. If Google leadership decides to walk away from cloud hosting, it’ll come in the form of reallocated engineers, reduced headcount, smaller conferences, and a general transition to “maintenance mode”. (At which point it’s a corporate backwater and everyone who can transfer out will.)&lt;p&gt;But for companies picking a cloud platform tomorrow, that’s a fate as good as death! AWS and Azure won’t slow down development and new features, so a couple years after GCP stops being a priority, it’ll start also being a bad deal, and a couple years after that it’ll be a straight-up strategic liability. THAT is why anything other than full-throated support from Google leadership for indefinite GCP investment will lose them business.</text></comment>