There's speculation that the Web
giant may launch its cloud service during Google I/O -- putting it in
competition with Amazon's existing service and Microsoft's rumored
upcoming service.
Talk has been circulating recently about Google building an
Infrastructure as a Service cloud computing platform in the near future. Now,
GigaOM is reporting that it's possible the Web giant could be launching this service as soon as next week during the
Google I/O developers' conference in San Francisco.
The tech news site is also saying that several people familiar with
Google's plans have confirmed that the company will also be offering its
current app engine and storage with its forthcoming service.
The
Web giant's platform will most likely compete with Amazon's EC2 cloud
service, but it could also be up against a similar Infrastructure as a
Service cloud computing offering that
Microsoft is supposedly building.
Both Microsoft and Google already have
software suites in the cloud,
Microsoft with Office 365 and Google with Apps for Business; moving
into Infrastructure as a Service territory could be a financial boost
for both companies. According to GigaOM, Google's main target
is actually Microsoft and its developer community. "The enterprise
developer community is also one of Microsoft's biggest strengths, and
Google wants to go after them," GigaOM writes. "In order to lure these
enterprise developers, the company has focused heavily on making it
easier to write, deploy and manage applications on its platform."
When CNET contacted Google for comment, its spokesperson said the company is not commenting on rumor or speculation.
