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I would say the Google strategy was wrong. For every AWS API with significant adoption, Google should have implemented it. Make transitioning from AWS to GCE

I would say the Google strategy was wrong. For every AWS API with significant adoption, Google should have implemented it. Make transitioning from AWS to GCE as simple as possible.

josho 7y ago
I don't follow you. Your suggestion just serves to turn this into a commodity low-margin business. What benefit does google have for doing that?
- benologist 7y ago
  Your question is basically how does hosting a quarter of the internet make money, well Amazon benefits a mil+ an hour in profit off AWS margins... plenty to entice Google and Microsoft to compete.
- sib 7y ago
  Google sees Amazon as its biggest and most threatening competitor. Starving your competitor of lots of high-margin revenue is a good thing to do.
- VikingCoder 7y ago
  If there's margin to be had, the first step is having customers. AWS was the clear leader, and sure, you can try to attract different customers... but they should have also tried to make it as easy as possible for existing AWS customers to migrate. Then, you offer your customers additional services that the other guy doesn't offer.
jgalt212 7y ago
yes, I agree. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug_compatible https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug_compatible
q3k 7y ago
I'm really glad they took the opportunity to change the APIs and abstractions around. Some of the ones exposed by AWS are absolutely insane. Not to mention some of the paradigms: regionalized dashboards/endpoints, the mess that is EC2Classic/VPC, lack of projects for compartmentalization/namespacing ... a lot of those APIs also leak internal implementation details of their products, and trying to match them would be silly. And they did follow one API that everybody else has: S3. And that one is decent only because it's basically HTTP with some auth headers sprinkled in. My overall experience with GCloud is much better thanks to these redesigns. AWS just seems like an underdesigned mess of loosely coupled components implemented by siloed teams.
- my_usernam3 7y ago
  > AWS just seems like an underdesigned mess of loosely coupled components implemented by siloed teams That was my experience as well. It felt like they never included any UX person throughout any of the decisions. Their naming convention alone always seemed confusing to me, although it does seem to be improving.
  - erichurkman 7y ago
    Applies: https://twitter.com/QuinnyPig/status/1173389969454288896 https://twitter.com/QuinnyPig/status/1173389969454288896

I would say the Google strategy was wrong. For every AWS API with significant adoption, Google should have implemented it. Make transitioning from AWS to GCE as simple as possible.

josho 7y ago

I don't follow you. Your suggestion just serves to turn this into a commodity low-margin business. What benefit does google have for doing that?

benologist 7y ago
Your question is basically how does hosting a quarter of the internet make money, well Amazon benefits a mil+ an hour in profit off AWS margins... plenty to entice Google and Microsoft to compete.
sib 7y ago
Google sees Amazon as its biggest and most threatening competitor. Starving your competitor of lots of high-margin revenue is a good thing to do.
VikingCoder 7y ago
If there's margin to be had, the first step is having customers. AWS was the clear leader, and sure, you can try to attract different customers... but they should have also tried to make it as easy as possible for existing AWS customers to migrate. Then, you offer your customers additional services that the other guy doesn't offer.

jgalt212 7y ago

yes, I agree. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug_compatible https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug_compatible

q3k 7y ago

I'm really glad they took the opportunity to change the APIs and abstractions around. Some of the ones exposed by AWS are absolutely insane. Not to mention some of the paradigms: regionalized dashboards/endpoints, the mess that is EC2Classic/VPC, lack of projects for compartmentalization/namespacing ... a lot of those APIs also leak internal implementation details of their products, and trying to match them would be silly. And they did follow one API that everybody else has: S3. And that one is decent only because it's basically HTTP with some auth headers sprinkled in. My overall experience with GCloud is much better thanks to these redesigns. AWS just seems like an underdesigned mess of loosely coupled components implemented by siloed teams.

my_usernam3 7y ago
> AWS just seems like an underdesigned mess of loosely coupled components implemented by siloed teams That was my experience as well. It felt like they never included any UX person throughout any of the decisions. Their naming convention alone always seemed confusing to me, although it does seem to be improving.
- erichurkman 7y ago
  Applies: https://twitter.com/QuinnyPig/status/1173389969454288896 https://twitter.com/QuinnyPig/status/1173389969454288896