Cloud computing is viewed by many as the future of computing. All the key tech companies are gradually, or rapidly, joining the Cloud business. Google, a major player in the world of technology, wants a share of the market of cloud computing. How is it going to overtake the competition?
One cannot conclusively determine the position of Google in the Cloud computing business. Google has a Cloud platform that is not as established as Microsoft’s Azure or Amazon Web Services. Cloud technologies, stored in massive data centers, are used by businesses, both big and small, for data storage and data access. Google Cloud has a mountain to climb before it becomes a competition for Microsoft and Amazon.
Cloud computing is creating such a buzz in the tech world as it is efficient and flexible, and most importantly cheap. Businesses are shifting to cloud services from traditional data storage methods every day. Cloud services seem utilitarian for most companies and business establishments. According to John Lovelock, an Analyst with Gartner, cloud computing will be worth $67 billion in 2020 as opposed to the anticipated $23 billion this year.
Google has all the potential to be the world’s cloud computing leader. Google currently has the largest search engine, email service, smartphone operating system and managed to revolutionize the media advertising business. Google would not want to miss out on the opportunity provision of cloud services present. Google’s involvement in cloud computing could change it into a daily utility applied on a broad spectrum of uses.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) came up with the first cloud product ten years ago. AWS is the global leader in cloud computing. In the first quarter of 2016, the cloud computing division earned $2.6 billion, which was about 9% of all Amazon’s sales. On Thursday, when the company announces the finances for the second quarter of 2016, these figures are expected to rise.
Microsoft is also enjoying healthy profits from its cloud business. Smartphones sales are not so good, but Microsoft Azure continues to perform as the company invests more in the platform. Last week, during Microsoft’s 2016 second quarter financial report, the company announced that Azure enjoyed a 100% year-on-year growth.
Apparently, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, does not include Google Cloud’s earnings in its financial reports. However, the company’s advancements in the Artificial Intelligence concept could help it overtake AWS and Microsoft in the cloud business. Last week, Google introduced APIs that utilize AI to interpret emotions, and moods. Google also announced that it would use AI to cut energy consumption by 15 percent. Power is a major factor in cloud computing. Uninterrupted power is required to keep everything online. Servers continually produce heat; therefore, power is needed in the server rooms to maintain low temperatures.
Google is certainly trying to advance in the cloud technology. We shall have to wait and see if AI technologies, fast data processing speeds and low energy costs will take cloud computing to the next level. But for the next couple of years, Amazon will remain at the top, although it is behind in the AI concept.
