The lead spot in cloud computing is a competitive match amongst the heavy weight contenders Amazon, Microsoft and Google, each trying to undercut each other in terms of price and offerings. However, with Google announcing 12 new data centres and 11 new cloud regions coming online over the next 12-25 months, the game has undoubtedly changed.
In the current Cloud climate, Microsoft Azure is sitting in first place with 22 centres with plans for an additional 5, Amazon in second with 12 centres and Google in Third with four.
When Google acquired new Cloud leadership from Diane Greene, the market expected big things in terms of its infrastructure strategy. Previously, despite being the number one advertising agency in the world, Google’s data network wasn’t extensive enough to compete with Azure and Amazon for their leadership spots. Google have ambitious targets as they aim to exceed current profits made in advertising revenue with its cloud services.
In order to compete, not only are Google looking to open new centres but they are also rumoured to be acquiring several Cloud companies in order to diversify their software and infrastructure offerings.
The first centres to be up and running are Tokyo Japan and Oregon US by the end of 2016. The rest will be opened in 2017. All regions will have multiple availability zones to offer high availability computing to customers in each locale.
Now the real question is… too much too late? Can they catch up to Microsoft and Amazon? A tough ask for sure and this will really be a test to see if deep pockets can allow late entrants into this match.
