Cloud Computing Market Exceeds All Expectations (Part 2)

Google could turn into Amazon

As for cloud computing, here Google is in a strange position.

No one doubts that the Google Cloud Platform has both scale and technology, since the same data centers that operate the Google search engine, as well as Gmail, YouTube and all other services work with it. Every day, billions of people use these services.

Also, no one doubts the innovation of Google. When, last year, the Docker startup, which by then everyone had heard, presented its software for the virtualization environment at the operating system level, Google announced that it was using the same technology in its data centers. Moreover, the corporation made its Kubernetes application management technology available to the community.

But Google was not so easy to find popularity among the larger and more profitable customers that he needs in order to be able to compete with other players in the cloud business.

In 2008 - two years before Microsoft opened Azure to the world - Google introduced the Google App Engine, a similar platform to help developers create their applications.

Despite the confidence of Google Cloud Services Director Urs Hölzle that “if the App Engine was a startup, it would be one of the bright lights of Silicon Valley,” its growth is incomparably small compared to the pace of development of Amazon Web Services in his early days.

Over the years of the existence of cloud services, Google added some features that made them more competitive, and in 2013 the entire product was renamed, called Google Cloud Platform. The company began to attract large customers such as Coca-Cola, General Mills and Best Buy, as more options for enterprises were added to the cloud.

Google has won the love of some developers who trust it more than Microsoft. Historically, Google adopted the philosophy of open source and introduced a variety of technologies to the world. (He can afford it, because search advertising brings more than 90% of the company's revenue, and, of course, Google doesn’t talk about discovering its main search and advertising technologies to the world.) Although Microsoft Nadella has become much more friendly than someday, some developers pockets still don't trust Microsoft - and probably never will.
Plus, very popular consumer products have already created Google a certain image. “Google has this cool innovation factor,” says Anderson.

According to the company itself, Google can be competitive both in price and in technology, because in any case, it is constantly expanding the functions and capabilities of its cloud for its own internal needs.

However, Google is lagging behind the rapid growth of Amazon and the fast pace of Microsoft in pursuit of the leader.

Everyone else is suffering

It could have been worse. Everyone else is having a lot of problems trying to compete in the world of cloud services. They started later and therefore are not able to create such a successful cycle as Amazon, which started earlier and has gone far into the lead.

“It’s not yet clear what place large public IT players have in the cloud,” says Forrester Bartoletti.

IBM has made huge investments in technologies such as IBM Bluemix and IBM Watson, which make it easy for developers to build applications in the cloud. But at the same time, the ubiquitous “cloud trend” caused serious harm to the equipment business of IBM, gradually taking away the company's revenue and casting a shadow on its prospects.

Now the main strategy of IBM is to “promote” the so-called “hybrid” cloud, which will allow companies to continue to work independently with some services and outsource others.

IBM has a great growth in its cloud business when it comes to revenue, but most of the revenue comes from customers in the hybrid cloud — thus, these are not comparable values.

The idea of ​​a hybrid cloud is well suited for large government agencies and companies such as large banks, which will always have their own computing power. But on the other hand, companies understand that they can transfer their tasks related to computing to third-party specialists who can do the job better and faster than themselves.

Oracle also claims that its cloud business is growing, but not so simple: Oracle turns to its existing customers (which is a lot of huge companies) and forces them to try out the Oracle cloud using its push and drop tactics and discounts.

Currently, Oracle Cloud is comfortable with existing Oracle customers, which allows them to work in their large-scale databases and CRM applications. But customers who keep up with cloudy trends will leave Oracle anyway. And those who remain are skeptical of the clouds and do not want or cannot try something new.

Bartoletti says: "Oracle knows that it cannot reach wider developer markets."

Meanwhile, the company is secretly working on a completely new proposal, which, according to Oracle, may be the right solution.

HP tried to compete for a place in the sun with its HP Helion open source cloud, but ran into problems expanding to a scale that would make it viable. The public HP Helion cloud will be closed very soon - in January 2016.

Rackspace Hosting became a competitor to Amazon Web Services at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, but could not stay afloat. After a series of unprofitable disappointing years, Rackspace recently announced that the company will reorient and will be engaged in support and services for the Amazon cloud.

Meanwhile, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft are slowly luring customers from old companies with their ever-declining prices and first-class capabilities.

For example, Amazon recently launched a service that could be called the “Oracle killer,” because it is clearly designed to move Oracle databases to Amazon Web Services — and Oracle’s customers just got the roof off.

This trend is good for end users who get more flexible infrastructures for less money. It is also great for Amazon and Google. After all, they do not need to protect other businesses based on earlier technologies like other companies. “These are all positive trends,” says Anderson.

“But if you represent Oracle ... then write is gone,” he adds.

According to Anderson, these players may well be successful in the short term, helping customers create better data centers and applications thanks to their existing server infrastructure.

Just be aware that this will not last long: the hyper-scale charm in the software era has taken too much hold of the world. “In the end, they will all go to Amazon or Microsoft,” says Anderson.