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My biggest challenge with GCP is that I'm still not convinced Google cares that much about this division. They acquired Looker, fired the customer service staf

My biggest challenge with GCP is that I'm still not convinced Google cares that much about this division. They acquired Looker, fired the customer service staff, and then set it out to crumble. Looker used to be LOVED by its customers but now they were forced to make their semantic layer work with Tableau. Also, I'm still not convinced Google cares about divisions that aren't linked to advertising. Google Search, Gmail (kinda), Maps, Android, and YouTube are their darlings. Will GCP be around in 5 years? I honestly am not sure.

christkv 3y ago
Considering their earnings today being down in cloud I think I would rightfully worry about their long term commitment.
- resolutebat 3y ago
  GCP revenue is up 28% YoY, and it went from a $440M quarterly loss in 2022 Q3 to a $266M profit 2023 Q3. Who'd shut down a business like that?
  - x86x87 3y ago
    Lol. You're new around here? Google has closed time after time things that were profitable and/or loved by their customer. At this point I don't see how anyone would be willing to bet the farm on anything Google
danielmarkbruce 3y ago
I used to work in GCP. They are definitely committed to it. Search, Android, Google Cloud, YouTube - definitely committed. It's the random little things they build too many of and hence close down. They never really understood branding. Slapping Google on everything doesn't help, it hurts. Many things are actually experiments and shouldn't be marketed as more than that.
- idunno246 3y ago
  i dont doubt gcp will continue existing. but individual services/products/apis/pricing break way too frequently, and the response from google is deal with it. small companies dont really notice it, and how anti-customer it is, but when once a month youre dealing with some firefight because gcp decided to change something its tiring, since at a big company it means tracking down ten different teams. ive not experienced anywhere near the churn in aws
  - danielmarkbruce 3y ago
    Yep, it's a fair criticism.
- mvdtnz 3y ago
  > They are definitely committed to it. Google on Stadia: October 2019 - "It is a long term view that Google is taking" November 2020 - "roadmap of about 400 games in development right now from 200 developers [...] 2023 is really kind of where we’re aiming our sights" February 2021 - "building Stadia into a long-term, sustainable business [...] remain committed to Stadia as a platform" September 2021 - "gaming is an incredibly important vertical at Google" November 2021 - "eager to continue working on bringing the best games and new features to our community of players so that we can help build a bright future for cloud gaming" February 2022 - "we are still focused on bringing great games to Stadia in 2022 [...] more feature goodness coming to Stadia too - stuff we can’t talk about just yet" September 2022 - "You might have seen one last game arrive on Stadia today. It's a humble :heart: thanks :heart: for playing from our team." https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/30/23378757/google-stadia-commitments-shutdown-rumors https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/30/23378757/google-stadia-co... Bonus comment from Google regarding Inbox: "With respect to the upcoming Gmail announcement, there are no changes to Inbox by Gmail. It remains a great product for users with specific workflows and one in which we test innovative features for email."
  - Alupis 3y ago
    It's not entirely a fair take, since nobody figured out how to make cloud gaming feasible. They have all given up, or are in the process of giving up.
alphalima 3y ago
Yes, especially around Looker. It's so strange/non-cloud. The 0-users 0-usage price is $5,000 per month.
willsmith72 3y ago
I generally prefer AWS except for the good experience I've had with cloud run, but GCP getting shut down is not something I would worry about. These cloud services are highly profitable
latchkey 3y ago
> Will GCP be around in 5 years? I honestly am not sure. AppEngine is going on, checks notes, 15 years now.
- fhoffa 3y ago
  AppEngine today is wildly different to the App Engine I fell in love with 15 years ago. Since you're checking notes, please check out all the AE service deprecation notes. Disclosure: I worked for Google for ~10 years, and I fought internally many of those deprecation decisions. I did not succeed.
  - latchkey 3y ago
    > AppEngine today is wildly different to the App Engine I fell in love with 15 years ago. I see that as a good thing, it means they are still working on it.
    - fhoffa 3y ago
      Have you actually been using it for 15 years? My guess is not, or you would have a different opinion. But that's just a guess
      - latchkey 3y ago
        Poor comment and poor guess. My best friend Jeff started working on Objectify in 2009 after I convinced him to use GAE. I have built two businesses on it. One did $80m in revenue in the first year and I guarantee we couldn’t have done it without GAE. Now give me back my downvote please.
        fhoffa 3y ago
        Wait, you just said in a separate comment that you migrated away from App Engine. You also just said that you used it very effectively back when it was a different thing. I think we agree in many more ways than we disagree. Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38020604 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38020604

christkv 3y ago

Considering their earnings today being down in cloud I think I would rightfully worry about their long term commitment.

resolutebat 3y ago
GCP revenue is up 28% YoY, and it went from a $440M quarterly loss in 2022 Q3 to a $266M profit 2023 Q3. Who'd shut down a business like that?
- x86x87 3y ago
  Lol. You're new around here? Google has closed time after time things that were profitable and/or loved by their customer. At this point I don't see how anyone would be willing to bet the farm on anything Google

danielmarkbruce 3y ago

I used to work in GCP. They are definitely committed to it. Search, Android, Google Cloud, YouTube - definitely committed. It's the random little things they build too many of and hence close down. They never really understood branding. Slapping Google on everything doesn't help, it hurts. Many things are actually experiments and shouldn't be marketed as more than that.

idunno246 3y ago
i dont doubt gcp will continue existing. but individual services/products/apis/pricing break way too frequently, and the response from google is deal with it. small companies dont really notice it, and how anti-customer it is, but when once a month youre dealing with some firefight because gcp decided to change something its tiring, since at a big company it means tracking down ten different teams. ive not experienced anywhere near the churn in aws
- danielmarkbruce 3y ago
  Yep, it's a fair criticism.
mvdtnz 3y ago
> They are definitely committed to it. Google on Stadia: October 2019 - "It is a long term view that Google is taking" November 2020 - "roadmap of about 400 games in development right now from 200 developers [...] 2023 is really kind of where we’re aiming our sights" February 2021 - "building Stadia into a long-term, sustainable business [...] remain committed to Stadia as a platform" September 2021 - "gaming is an incredibly important vertical at Google" November 2021 - "eager to continue working on bringing the best games and new features to our community of players so that we can help build a bright future for cloud gaming" February 2022 - "we are still focused on bringing great games to Stadia in 2022 [...] more feature goodness coming to Stadia too - stuff we can’t talk about just yet" September 2022 - "You might have seen one last game arrive on Stadia today. It's a humble :heart: thanks :heart: for playing from our team." https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/30/23378757/google-stadia-commitments-shutdown-rumors https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/30/23378757/google-stadia-co... Bonus comment from Google regarding Inbox: "With respect to the upcoming Gmail announcement, there are no changes to Inbox by Gmail. It remains a great product for users with specific workflows and one in which we test innovative features for email."
- Alupis 3y ago
  It's not entirely a fair take, since nobody figured out how to make cloud gaming feasible. They have all given up, or are in the process of giving up.

alphalima 3y ago

Yes, especially around Looker. It's so strange/non-cloud. The 0-users 0-usage price is $5,000 per month.

willsmith72 3y ago

I generally prefer AWS except for the good experience I've had with cloud run, but GCP getting shut down is not something I would worry about. These cloud services are highly profitable

latchkey 3y ago

> Will GCP be around in 5 years? I honestly am not sure. AppEngine is going on, checks notes, 15 years now.

fhoffa 3y ago
AppEngine today is wildly different to the App Engine I fell in love with 15 years ago. Since you're checking notes, please check out all the AE service deprecation notes. Disclosure: I worked for Google for ~10 years, and I fought internally many of those deprecation decisions. I did not succeed.
- latchkey 3y ago
  > AppEngine today is wildly different to the App Engine I fell in love with 15 years ago. I see that as a good thing, it means they are still working on it.
  - fhoffa 3y ago
    Have you actually been using it for 15 years? My guess is not, or you would have a different opinion. But that's just a guess
    - latchkey 3y ago
      Poor comment and poor guess. My best friend Jeff started working on Objectify in 2009 after I convinced him to use GAE. I have built two businesses on it. One did $80m in revenue in the first year and I guarantee we couldn’t have done it without GAE. Now give me back my downvote please.
      - fhoffa 3y ago
        Wait, you just said in a separate comment that you migrated away from App Engine. You also just said that you used it very effectively back when it was a different thing. I think we agree in many more ways than we disagree. Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38020604 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38020604