Google Maneuvers in the Cloud
December 27, 2012
Google wants to be more like Amazon. InformationWeek reveals, “Google Adds Cloud Infrastructure Muscle vs. Amazon.” Let’s hope Google search does not emulate the aging A9 system.
Actually, Google is making several changes to its cloud services that it hopes will help it compete with Amazon’s successful Web Services. The beta version of Google’s Compute Engine was launched in June of this year, and has received good reviews, according to Google’s Shailesh Rao. There is no word on when, exactly, the product will be generally available. Writer Charles Babcock shares these details:
“The new server configurations come much closer to matching the wide variety of options found on Amazon Web Services, with virtual machines with more CPU power and larger random access memory. Google’s previous entry level — a ‘standard’ virtual server with one ‘core’ (equal to half a 2011 Intel Sandy Bridge CPU core), plus 3.75 GB of RAM and 420 GB of disk space — was priced at $0.145 an hour. With the price reduction, it’s now, $0.138 an hour.
“Rao said Google is trying to be competitive in its pricing, which appears to position a slightly heftier virtual server next to a similar Amazon offering at a slightly lower price.”
Google also offers options that supply much more memory and storage for users willing to pay the higher price. On the other end of the cost scale, low key users can opt for “reduced availability” at a reduced price. Then there’s the persistent disk snapshotting service, which can send snapshots to a customer-designated backup location. Of course, customers also get access to Google’s lightning-fast data centers.
The article notes that Google admits it will probably not win over existing Amazon customers at this time, but that it is really going after the startup market right now. Interesting move.
Cynthia Murrell, December 27, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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