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I hear this from time to time, but how many people are actually choosing not to use GCP for that reason? Yes, Google keeps killing consumer products (Hangouts i

I hear this from time to time, but how many people are actually choosing not to use GCP for that reason? Yes, Google keeps killing consumer products (Hangouts is reportedly getting the axe…), but Google Cloud seems to have a much more stable set of services, especially when you look at the core. Things like App Engine have been around forever. Surely Google treats their B2B products and B2C products differently, no?

alex_anglin 6y ago
Part of the trouble here is that the Google brand spans their B2B and B2C offerings.
sova 6y ago
Hangouts is now read-only for messages to/from phone numbers (as of December 2020 iirc), but you can still message people who are signed in to chat on Gmail. Effectively axed.
2pEXgD0fZ5cF 6y ago
I'd say the fact that Google is the "0 support or human interaction, ever, once you need help with anything, forget it" company does not help either. When it comes to their paid products I hear mixed reports in my circles, some claim that they have good experiences with it. But ultimately the question is: Why risk it?
- aroman 6y ago
  Virtually anyone who is using google cloud to run their business is surely paying for access to real human interaction. This costs as little as $100/mo for basic support all the way up to dedicated support. I agree with your pout for consumer, but GP is talking about b2b cloud, where google behaves very differently than their general “no there is no customer support” behavior.
kentonv 6y ago
> Surely Google treats their B2B products and B2C products differently, no? Apparently not: https://steve-yegge.medium.com/dear-google-cloud-your-deprecation-policy-is-killing-you-ee7525dc05dc https://steve-yegge.medium.com/dear-google-cloud-your-deprec...
- koheripbal 6y ago
  It's no different than choosing a B2C startup for your company, and then having them go out of business. There are certain core services that I would expect Google to maintain, and others are gambles. It's important to know which is which.
qris 6y ago
Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microsoft in Cloud. The Google unit, which sells computing services to big companies, is under pressure from top management to pass Amazon or Microsoft — currently first and second, respectively, in cloud market share — or risk losing funding. Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21815260 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21815260
- klodolph 6y ago
  Read the top comment—the fact that they are setting deadlines & performance goals does not mean that services are getting shut down.
  - rblatz 6y ago
    But it raises the question in people’s minds. If you are building your company on a cloud platform why would you risk GCP after seeing that?
intergalplan 6y ago
I try to isolate and minimize dependencies on Google due to their habit of abruptly banning entire accounts because one of their bots thinks it spotted something slightly odd on a single service that account is using. It's absolutely part of my risk-assessment at work, when selecting which services to use. Their fickle approach to services that aren't ads or search is just part of the problem. > Surely Google treats their B2B products and B2C products differently, no? Not differently enough, and I'm not directing enough of our services spending to Google to find out if that gets us over the line where they won't shit all over us without at least giving us a heads-up. Maybe it would be, maybe not, but why risk it when most of what they offer is far from unique and not much better-priced than alternatives, if at all.
- syrgian 6y ago
  I have heard anecdotes of them linking accounts together and banning them all at once if one of the algorithms deems you unworthy. Unless you are really splitting them, by using a different IP and browser characteristics for each of them... But then you are very likely to have them banned separately, due to suspicious behavior.

alex_anglin 6y ago

Part of the trouble here is that the Google brand spans their B2B and B2C offerings.

sova 6y ago

Hangouts is now read-only for messages to/from phone numbers (as of December 2020 iirc), but you can still message people who are signed in to chat on Gmail. Effectively axed.

2pEXgD0fZ5cF 6y ago

I'd say the fact that Google is the "0 support or human interaction, ever, once you need help with anything, forget it" company does not help either. When it comes to their paid products I hear mixed reports in my circles, some claim that they have good experiences with it. But ultimately the question is: Why risk it?

aroman 6y ago
Virtually anyone who is using google cloud to run their business is surely paying for access to real human interaction. This costs as little as $100/mo for basic support all the way up to dedicated support. I agree with your pout for consumer, but GP is talking about b2b cloud, where google behaves very differently than their general “no there is no customer support” behavior.

kentonv 6y ago

> Surely Google treats their B2B products and B2C products differently, no? Apparently not: https://steve-yegge.medium.com/dear-google-cloud-your-deprecation-policy-is-killing-you-ee7525dc05dc https://steve-yegge.medium.com/dear-google-cloud-your-deprec...

koheripbal 6y ago
It's no different than choosing a B2C startup for your company, and then having them go out of business. There are certain core services that I would expect Google to maintain, and others are gambles. It's important to know which is which.

qris 6y ago

Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microsoft in Cloud. The Google unit, which sells computing services to big companies, is under pressure from top management to pass Amazon or Microsoft — currently first and second, respectively, in cloud market share — or risk losing funding. Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21815260 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21815260

klodolph 6y ago
Read the top comment—the fact that they are setting deadlines & performance goals does not mean that services are getting shut down.
- rblatz 6y ago
  But it raises the question in people’s minds. If you are building your company on a cloud platform why would you risk GCP after seeing that?

intergalplan 6y ago

I try to isolate and minimize dependencies on Google due to their habit of abruptly banning entire accounts because one of their bots thinks it spotted something slightly odd on a single service that account is using. It's absolutely part of my risk-assessment at work, when selecting which services to use. Their fickle approach to services that aren't ads or search is just part of the problem. > Surely Google treats their B2B products and B2C products differently, no? Not differently enough, and I'm not directing enough of our services spending to Google to find out if that gets us over the line where they won't shit all over us without at least giving us a heads-up. Maybe it would be, maybe not, but why risk it when most of what they offer is far from unique and not much better-priced than alternatives, if at all.

syrgian 6y ago
I have heard anecdotes of them linking accounts together and banning them all at once if one of the algorithms deems you unworthy. Unless you are really splitting them, by using a different IP and browser characteristics for each of them... But then you are very likely to have them banned separately, due to suspicious behavior.