Sources at The Information report that Google Cloud has to best Amazon or Microsoft to survive in the cloud market. Allegedly, that is the requirement which the management of Google has imposed on their cloud unit, in order to continue to receive funding.
Google has invested tens of billions in the cloud business in recent years, so the report more or less comes out of thin air. It is of course a logical objective to focus on direct competitors, but completely eliminating Google Cloud is an extreme plan. According to The Information, the timeline for 2023 was agreed early last year by top executives at Google and parent company Alphabet. If the sources are true, it could well be that Google Cloud will cease to exist in three years’ time.
Rumours exaggerated?
SiliconAngle, however, reports that these rumours are not true, and that the real agreements that have been made are milder in nature. Google Cloud indeed has set the goal of becoming the second player in the market by 2023, but it is not true that the plug will be pulled from the entire business if this goal is not achieved. In an e-mail to Silicon Angle, Google stated that the messages from The Information are simply incorrect.
The message from Google seems to be a bit more credible than the message from The Information, since there are specific areas in which Google does have the upper hand. Among other things, artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics and Kubernetes are areas where the Google Cloud enjoys a leading position. In short: it is interesting that there appears to be commotion within Google Cloud, about the goals that the company wants to achieve, but a complete withdrawal seems somewhat exaggerated without knowing more.