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Cloud is where Google's reputation for killing products is really going to haunt it. Every time HN commenters complain about Google axing a service, there are l

Cloud is where Google's reputation for killing products is really going to haunt it. Every time HN commenters complain about Google axing a service, there are lots of "you're making too big a deal about this, no one is leaving Google because they ditched Reader" responses, and for its consumer products that may be true. But decisions about which cloud provider to use are made by C-suite executives, and they absolutely do look warily at Google, especially in comparison with Amazon (which makes basically all its profit from AWS) and Microsoft (which is obsessed with back-compat and keeping old products working as long as possible). Basic risk management and the huge cost of abruptly switching clouds will be the albatross around GCE's neck.

keypusher 8y ago
At startups and even medium sized tech companies, these decisions are often driven by engineering/ops teams and not by executives. I was on a team trying to decide between staying with AWS and moving to GCP about a year ago, at a company that spends well over $1M/year on infrastructure. The fact that Google has a track record of abandoning products with active users and has repeatedly shown they do not know how to deal with customers was absolutely part of the reason we decided to stay with AWS. I respect the engineering at Google immensely, and I would be willing to reconsider in a few years, but they need to prove their commitment first. They literally just killed another product today (Android Things)!
- ernsheong 8y ago
  Looks like GCP needs to sorely address this (mis)perception, and ensure their commitments to GCP is separate from the consumer business. But really, GCP is not the same as the consumer-facing products. GCP already has a lot of clout, and literally nothing I know in GCP has been deprecated/chopped just like that. GCP already has a huge following in its own right and it's very unlikely for GCP stuff to be axed, given how careful they are with implementing new features (I have interacted with numerous engineers, and often feature requests are taken with a lot of valid pushback to prevent feature creep).
  - raxxorrax 8y ago
    I don't think you can fully separate business and customers. Google Maps? Google suddenly vastly increased prices. This is something all cloud providers suffer from. What assurance do I get that pricing and quality of service remains stable? Amazon has the same problem. If I look into my billing console, I see an increase of used computing resources. From inactive projects. They still managed to use significant CPU-time. I would not be able to claim otherwise. As long as the costs remain low, this is not a problem. But you have to believe your cloud provider...
- raxxorrax 8y ago
  I wonder how you get all this info about the backends behind cloud services. Nearly everything is a huge blackbox from my perspective. Personally, I deploy solutions to AWS too, mostly beanstalk with defined environments, cognito for user authentication, typical latte macchiato cloud user. Still using my own server for anything in development or for personal stuff or file storage (have you looked at prices? It is basically free now). I mainly use cloud services because people want it fast and cheap but still need an option to scale the solution. I am content with the services Amazon delivers, but I heavily expect some kind of bubble burst in the future. Development of infrastructure and management interfaces probably isn't cheap either. So does Google have a better backend than Amazon or Microsoft? I couldn't tell. Only that Microsoft tends to be slower than the competitors, Google tends to ban random users and some of their own services, and just with that Amazon comes out on top. But the fear that a service is deprecated at one point is a permanent undercurrent.
partiallypro 8y ago
I don't know why you were down voted, this is 100% correct. Google's own reputation is Google Cloud's biggest enemy. Microsoft is really in the sweet spot, Amazon is eating the world and no one wants to pay their direct competitors money every month.
solipsism 8y ago
But decisions about which cloud provider to use are made by C-suite executives, and they absolutely do look warily at Google You sound quite certain of that, so can you share your sources?
mustardo 8y ago
Anecdata, I was completing a proof of concept for deploying one of my companies apps to GCP and AWS comparing them and evaluating what platform to use. About 3 days before finishing my work and demonstrating how both went to my colleagues my GCP account linked to my company email address was blocked and then deleted with no warning otherthan a single email saying I had violated some T&C. I tried very hard to contact anyone about my issue and naturally got nothing We went with AWS Two years later I've left the company now valued in the billions and spending several hundred thousand dollars a month on AWS
coredog64 8y ago
I would also add that Google is competing with customers in a similar fashion to Amazon/AWS. One example is travel: Google is actually an OTA and actively works to take a cut of each trip. If you’re doing anything that could potentially be given away free (well, free with ad revenue), you should be thinking long and hard about paying Google to outcompete you.

keypusher 8y ago

At startups and even medium sized tech companies, these decisions are often driven by engineering/ops teams and not by executives. I was on a team trying to decide between staying with AWS and moving to GCP about a year ago, at a company that spends well over $1M/year on infrastructure. The fact that Google has a track record of abandoning products with active users and has repeatedly shown they do not know how to deal with customers was absolutely part of the reason we decided to stay with AWS. I respect the engineering at Google immensely, and I would be willing to reconsider in a few years, but they need to prove their commitment first. They literally just killed another product today (Android Things)!

ernsheong 8y ago
Looks like GCP needs to sorely address this (mis)perception, and ensure their commitments to GCP is separate from the consumer business. But really, GCP is not the same as the consumer-facing products. GCP already has a lot of clout, and literally nothing I know in GCP has been deprecated/chopped just like that. GCP already has a huge following in its own right and it's very unlikely for GCP stuff to be axed, given how careful they are with implementing new features (I have interacted with numerous engineers, and often feature requests are taken with a lot of valid pushback to prevent feature creep).
- raxxorrax 8y ago
  I don't think you can fully separate business and customers. Google Maps? Google suddenly vastly increased prices. This is something all cloud providers suffer from. What assurance do I get that pricing and quality of service remains stable? Amazon has the same problem. If I look into my billing console, I see an increase of used computing resources. From inactive projects. They still managed to use significant CPU-time. I would not be able to claim otherwise. As long as the costs remain low, this is not a problem. But you have to believe your cloud provider...
raxxorrax 8y ago
I wonder how you get all this info about the backends behind cloud services. Nearly everything is a huge blackbox from my perspective. Personally, I deploy solutions to AWS too, mostly beanstalk with defined environments, cognito for user authentication, typical latte macchiato cloud user. Still using my own server for anything in development or for personal stuff or file storage (have you looked at prices? It is basically free now). I mainly use cloud services because people want it fast and cheap but still need an option to scale the solution. I am content with the services Amazon delivers, but I heavily expect some kind of bubble burst in the future. Development of infrastructure and management interfaces probably isn't cheap either. So does Google have a better backend than Amazon or Microsoft? I couldn't tell. Only that Microsoft tends to be slower than the competitors, Google tends to ban random users and some of their own services, and just with that Amazon comes out on top. But the fear that a service is deprecated at one point is a permanent undercurrent.

partiallypro 8y ago

I don't know why you were down voted, this is 100% correct. Google's own reputation is Google Cloud's biggest enemy. Microsoft is really in the sweet spot, Amazon is eating the world and no one wants to pay their direct competitors money every month.

solipsism 8y ago

But decisions about which cloud provider to use are made by C-suite executives, and they absolutely do look warily at Google You sound quite certain of that, so can you share your sources?

mustardo 8y ago

Anecdata, I was completing a proof of concept for deploying one of my companies apps to GCP and AWS comparing them and evaluating what platform to use. About 3 days before finishing my work and demonstrating how both went to my colleagues my GCP account linked to my company email address was blocked and then deleted with no warning otherthan a single email saying I had violated some T&C. I tried very hard to contact anyone about my issue and naturally got nothing We went with AWS Two years later I've left the company now valued in the billions and spending several hundred thousand dollars a month on AWS

coredog64 8y ago

I would also add that Google is competing with customers in a similar fashion to Amazon/AWS. One example is travel: Google is actually an OTA and actively works to take a cut of each trip. If you’re doing anything that could potentially be given away free (well, free with ad revenue), you should be thinking long and hard about paying Google to outcompete you.