I think it's implied in the disappointment that Spanner isn't open source: "To put it bluntly, it would have been more interesting to see Google endorse Cockro

I think it's implied in the disappointment that Spanner isn't open source: "To put it bluntly, it would have been more interesting to see Google endorse CockroachDB and support it on Cloud Platform, creating an open source community as well as a cloud service for its Cloud Platform customers." CockroachDB will presumably do better in the author's eyes because it's open source and there can be a real community built around it.