Where to get cloud computing is a problem many have. There are so many choices, from IBM, Dell, HP, to Rackspace and Softlayer. One view on what cloud to buy is to buy from someone who uses their own SW and develops the cloud. Would you buy a Ford car from a company where most of the people drive other cars? Kind of hard to swallow. Which is why many think of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft's Cloud offerings.
GigaOm's Barb Darrow has a post on the AWS vs. Google battle with a bit on Microsoft. Barb starts by acknowledging AWS is #1 and asks who will be #2.
Amazon is the cloud to beat, but Google has the cloud to watch. Here’s why.
by Barb Darrow
1 HOUR AGO1 Comment
SUMMARY:So who will be number two in public cloud after Amazon Web Services? Smart money is now on Google Compute Engine. With caveats, of course.
One strategy I totally agree with is when your service gets big enough to look at backing up to another cloud.
Multi-cloud strategies demand a back-up cloud
As big and great as AWS is, most existing and potential business customers will not lock into a single cloud provider. They are still bruised from the current generation of vendor lock in. On the other hand, they can’t afford to support too many. “You can only make so many bets, and it’s clear that Google is in this public cloud game to stay,” said one vendor exec who would not be named because his company does business with Amazon.
Barb mentions Microsoft and brings up the challenge of legacy apps. Which could be considered a negative, but for some may be a positive.
Lack of legacy baggage helps GCE
Microsoft Windows Azure is paying the price now for Microsoft’s huge installed base of Windows and .NET legacy applications. While it’s done a good job incorporating support for open-source technologies under the Azure umbrella, that support is not on par with Windows, at least when you ask developers outside the .NET world. “They are still waited down by their Windows and Office mentality,” said one vendor who weighed supporting Azure but decided against it. “There are aspects of Azure that are technically superior but then their APIs are attrocious,” he said.
This type of stuff is what will be discussed in more detail at GigaOm Structure.
We will be talking about public and private cloud adoption, gating factors to that adoption, and other hot-button topics at GigaOM Structure in San Francisco in June.
Disclosure: I work freelance for GigaOm Pro, will be a speaker at GigaOm Structure, know Barb Darrow, and enjoy chats with Barb on what is going on in the industry.