AI And Community Development Are Two Key Reasons Why Google May Win The Cloud Wars

Reflecting the rapidly increasing interest and investment in cloud computing, 10,000 developers, engineers, IT executives, and Google employees and partners gathered at Next '17, Google's annual cloud event for enterprise customers. Google showcased customer testimonials from Disney, Verizon, HSBC, Colgate-Palmolive, and Ebay; support from a number of new partners, including SAP; and a series of AI and cloud infrastructure-related announcements. Analysts were not impressed (see here and here, for example). Google, the argument goes, is a consumer company and does not understand or have ready access to enterprise customers. Amazon's first mover advantage has produced an insurmountable market lead (last year, it reported cloud revenues of $12.22 billion, compared to Microsoft's $2.42 billion and Google's $900 million, Deutsche Bank estimates).