4 ms·

I'd point out that we're generally trying to offer simple, competitive pricing across our services (we're not totally there yet). This write up is a pretty goo

by boulos 11y ago

I'd point out that we're generally trying to offer simple, competitive pricing across our services (we're not totally there yet). This write up is a pretty good summary of our differences on the compute side: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10922105 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10922105 Disclaimer: I work on Compute Engine, and specific to that article launched Preemptible VMs.

skrause 11y ago
My main problem with the Google Cloud Storage as an individual customer in Germany is this: https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/6090602?hl=en https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/6090602?hl=en Since I can't find a way to set my account status to "personal" I'm somehow personally responsible to pay VAT (I wouldn't even know how to do that) if I don't want to risk getting problems with our version of the IRS. That doesn't sound like a nice way to do my personal backups. On AWS that's not a problem, Amazon bills and pays the VAT for me.
- christop 11y ago
  As nonsensical as it is, you're not meant to be using Google Cloud Platform as an individual user at all. From that same page: "Google Cloud Platform services can be used only for business purposes in the European Union."
  - djhworld 11y ago
    Seems like AWS has capitalised on the gap to target the hobbyist AND enterprise markets, whereas google doesn't really want that.
- boulos 11y ago
  Sorry. That's all any of us on Google Cloud can usefully say about the damn VAT issue. We've got people working on it, but it's a Google wide issue (and I honestly don't understand the last mile enough to know why we don't do exactly what you describe AWS doing). As a side reply to the poster below, it's not true that we're trying to exclude individuals. There are lots of happy, individual customers all over the world. We unfortunately just didn't get out ahead of this personal service / VAT thing as a company. So again, Sorry! And someone is working on it, but don't expect any immediate fixes when taxes/regulations/laws are involved.
abrookewood 11y ago
So pass this up the chain if you can: I've used both Azure and (continue to use) AWS, but I've never seriously even considered Google Cloud Platform because I feel like Google's service offering is not stable. I know inherently that this is because of the way Google treats its consumer offerings, but I can't help but imagine that it applies to the business offerings as well.
- boulos 11y ago
  I hear you. Those of us that care regret the shutdown of Reader, as it has almost certainly cost us more business dollars than running it in perpetuity may have. That said, Google (like most businesses?) hasn't cancelled any product that is making lots of money. At Google, that means Ads, Apps, and yes Cloud. We're here to stay, and unlike on the consumer side Cloud has an explicit deprecation policy for products that have "gone GA" (graduated from Beta). Big picture items like Compute Engine, Google Cloud Storage, etc. aren't going anywhere. We might deprecate our v1 API after we're on v2 of course, but we're not cancelling the product (again, it makes us money, and that's a pretty key distinction from the consumer products Google has historically shuttered). Disclaimer: I work on Compute Engine and haven't personally cancelled anything yet ;).

by boulos 11y ago

skrause 11y ago

My main problem with the Google Cloud Storage as an individual customer in Germany is this: https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/6090602?hl=en https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/6090602?hl=en Since I can't find a way to set my account status to "personal" I'm somehow personally responsible to pay VAT (I wouldn't even know how to do that) if I don't want to risk getting problems with our version of the IRS. That doesn't sound like a nice way to do my personal backups. On AWS that's not a problem, Amazon bills and pays the VAT for me.

christop 11y ago
As nonsensical as it is, you're not meant to be using Google Cloud Platform as an individual user at all. From that same page: "Google Cloud Platform services can be used only for business purposes in the European Union."
- djhworld 11y ago
  Seems like AWS has capitalised on the gap to target the hobbyist AND enterprise markets, whereas google doesn't really want that.
boulos 11y ago
Sorry. That's all any of us on Google Cloud can usefully say about the damn VAT issue. We've got people working on it, but it's a Google wide issue (and I honestly don't understand the last mile enough to know why we don't do exactly what you describe AWS doing). As a side reply to the poster below, it's not true that we're trying to exclude individuals. There are lots of happy, individual customers all over the world. We unfortunately just didn't get out ahead of this personal service / VAT thing as a company. So again, Sorry! And someone is working on it, but don't expect any immediate fixes when taxes/regulations/laws are involved.

abrookewood 11y ago

So pass this up the chain if you can: I've used both Azure and (continue to use) AWS, but I've never seriously even considered Google Cloud Platform because I feel like Google's service offering is not stable. I know inherently that this is because of the way Google treats its consumer offerings, but I can't help but imagine that it applies to the business offerings as well.

boulos 11y ago
I hear you. Those of us that care regret the shutdown of Reader, as it has almost certainly cost us more business dollars than running it in perpetuity may have. That said, Google (like most businesses?) hasn't cancelled any product that is making lots of money. At Google, that means Ads, Apps, and yes Cloud. We're here to stay, and unlike on the consumer side Cloud has an explicit deprecation policy for products that have "gone GA" (graduated from Beta). Big picture items like Compute Engine, Google Cloud Storage, etc. aren't going anywhere. We might deprecate our v1 API after we're on v2 of course, but we're not cancelling the product (again, it makes us money, and that's a pretty key distinction from the consumer products Google has historically shuttered). Disclaimer: I work on Compute Engine and haven't personally cancelled anything yet ;).