With one hand, Google cuts. And with the other, it connects.
That’s the ongoing story of Google Cloud Platform, the company’s set of products and services for developers looking to host and run apps over Google’s sprawling Web infrastructure.
See also: Google’s Secret Weapon Against Amazon: Blisteringly Fast Networks
On Tuesday, Google executive Joerg Heilig kicked off its second Google Cloud Platform Live event with more price cuts across a range of services from computing to storage. (Last month, Google cut prices on Google Compute Engine, a flagship cloud-computing service, by 10 percent.)
ReadWrite predicted that 2014 would be a year of cloud price cuts, and Google and archrivals Microsoft and Amazon have delivered. The bottom line for consumers and businesses: cheaper computing, faster creation of new services by startups and big companies alike, and more migration to the cloud.
Google’s Head In The Cloud
Google has the advantage of spreading its costs across the same infrastructure that runs Google search, YouTube, and other staggeringly large Web services. But it has another key advantage over Microsoft and Amazon: its network.
See also: Amazon Cloud’s Huge Head Start: It’s All About The Developers
Google is now allowing customers to connect directly to its network or connect through carriers like Verizon and Level 3 and data-center operators like Equinix, and will introduce access over virtual private networks next month. GigaOm’s Barb Darrow points out that that will help Google win over “risk-averse business customers” who might otherwise prefer services from Amazon or IBM.
Add to that Andromeda, the networking software ReadWrite has called “Google’s secret weapon” in the war against Amazon and Microsoft. Andromeda simplifies the management of the often-complex networking configurations of cloud servers—and thus improving their performance. Google updated Andromeda in October to make it even faster.
See also: Andromeda, Google’s Secret Weapon To Keep Amazon And Microsoft On Their Toes
Amazon, long the leader in cloud computing thanks to its early start in the business, is unlikely to stand still. Expect more Amazon price cuts and service updates next week at Re:Invent, its annual conference for Amazon Web Services customers.
Lead photo of Google executive Joerg Heilig by Owen Thomas for ReadWrite