Google pitches higher-level services at Google Cloud Next Conference

At its Google Cloud Next Conference this week in San Francisco, Google indicated that it would push its cloud initiative on higher-level services and next-generation workloads. According to commentators, the strategy resonated with the IT professionals at the conference

After a day of emphasis on mainstream enterprise case studies at its Google Cloud Next Conference in the city this week, Google announced several new services to differentiate from its more established rivals in the field.

The updates included an expansion of its popular ad hoc search tool, lower prices and discounts for long-term use, more security features, expanded serverless computing and database options.

According to the delegates, which included many users of public clouds, the focus on machine learning and abstraction made Google Cloud Platform an attractive option.

One aspect about Google was that it was viewed as a platform versus just infrastructure, according to James Raby, project manager at Lonely Planet, a travel publisher based in Tennessee, TechTarget reported.

"You don't want to be messing around with machines and networking and configuring," he said.

As regards serverless, users could now bring frameworks to Google App Engine in addition to the seven languages it already supported. Also Cloud Functions would now be finally available in public beta after a lengthy alpha window.

According to commentators, at the conference Google tried to convey that like Amazon and Microsoft, which had their respective secret weapons in the field, Google too had one.

Amazon had capitalised on its early mover momentum to gain its dominant first place position, while Microsoft which was at the second place, had existing relationships with big businesses that were helping expand the reach of its Azure cloud.

"We started from first principles," Google's eighth employee and all-around tech guru Urs Holzle said on stage at the event. "We designed every element of our infrastructure so you can be productive and enjoy the infrastructure that we created."

According to commentators, it was not a new point, Google had been saying this for a while. They point out that at a time when big cloud outages and security breaches were in the headlines, Google's message might start to have more resonance.