Google Takes Another Aggressive Step In Data Center Competition

Featured article by Rick DelGado, Independent Technology Author

Google has long been known as a fairly aggressive company when it comes to technological strategy and innovations. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that Google has been so active in developing their own cloud services and data centers. Unlike other areas of technology, the cloud is perhaps one of the most competitive, with major players like Amazon and Microsoft executing their own plans to gain more market share, all part of what is known as the cloud wars. Google’s recent announcement made back in March is just the latest aggressive step from them. In that release, Google announced ten new data center locations in various places around the world. The plan is to grow Google’s data center footprint while increasing their cloud infrastructure. As just another front of the cloud wars, it’s a smart strategy that helps the company maintain its standing in the middle of some heated data center competition.

The details of the announcement demonstrate how seriously Google is taking this renewed data center push. While part of this expansion will rely on facilities that Google itself has built, some of it will also consist of facilities that are leased out to the company, marking a notable shift in strategy. Google is also ramping up the amount it’s investing in data centers and cloud services. While the company has not given any concrete numbers, analysts estimate Google is expected to spend nearly $2 billion on its new data center operations during the first quarter of this year. This would be in addition to the already estimated $11 billion spent on servers and data centers in the entire previous year. So not only is Google spending more in expanding its infrastructure, it’s also spending more on its existing data centers.

The implications of this move may turn out to be tremendously impactful. For one, the announcement indicates an increased focus on the cloud front. This is likely in part because the competition among leading cloud providers has been so intense. Both Amazon and Microsoft are considered the leaders in public cloud services, and they already have a sizeable presence. In order for Google to compete in the cloud wars, their own infrastructure needed a boost, and that means rapid expansion globally. Building their own facilities would have made expansion much slower. Microsoft has adopted a similar strategy of leasing out facilities for its data centers, all in an effort to grow their cloud services.

Another point to take away from this is how the cloud wars have quickly gone global. It’s not enough to saturate markets in North America and Europe anymore. Total worldwide expansion of data centers is needed, especially as countries become more concerned on keeping sensitive data within their own borders. Expanding to new regions is of extreme importance in asserting cloud dominance. Amazon Web Services (AWS) currently operates in 12 regions around the world, while Microsoft’s cloud operations are found in 22 regions with six more expected by the end of the years. In comparison, Google Cloud Platform is only found in four regions globally. Needless to say, that’s a significant disadvantage, forcing Google to play catch-up in their cloud reach. From that perspective, it’s easy to see why Google has chosen to emphasize an expanding cloud presence through the construction of new data centers.

There are other reasons Google will want to create these data centers, and they all don’t involve converged infrastructure. Perhaps the most notable reason is the growing influence and popularity of machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies. These advances lead to a lot of data being generated, analyzed, and stored, and current facilities are limited in that aspect. As machine learning and AI expand their influence around the world, along with the development of the Internet of Things, more data centers will be needed. Google is merely trying to get ahead of the trend before the company falls too far behind.

Pretty much the only way to stay competitive in the cloud wars is to be aggressive. Google has adopted this strategy as the company looks to close the gap between itself and its competitors. The more data centers are built, the more Google will be able to offer more cloud services to more people, keeping the cloud wars going well into the future.

by Rick DelGado, Independent Author

“I’ve been blessed to have a successful career and have recently taken a step back to pursue my passion of writing. I’ve started doing freelance writing and I love to write about new technologies and how it can help us and our planet.” – Rick DelGado