[bassdropvroom]

While I'm not arguing the general point of the article, I will counter point one thing.

> Will Google Cloud even exist a decade from now?

This seems wildly speculative, and the likelihood of GCP, or its core offerings, not existing any time so soon is next to zero. Google has to royally fuck up for this to be the case, but even if it ends up being case, there will be a string of lawsuits lined up that will likely cost the company more than keeping the product.

I've worked at billion dollar companies that aren't shy to drop a lawsuit who have gone all in on GCP, with contracts worth millions of dollar. To force such a company off their product seems reckless at best, malicious at worst. Such a big decision would drive Google into the ground, maybe not from the consumers, but certainly from the lawsuits that will inevitably ensue.

[plorkyeran]

Keeping GCP running to satisfy their contractual obligations and continuing GCP as a product sold to the general public are very different things. Shutting down any enterprise product tends to involve ending sales long before you actually shut it down.

[bassdropvroom]

That's exactly my point, but I think you articulated it way better than I did.

[XorNot]

Cloud computing hasn't existed for all that long though - eventually a cloud provider is going to fold for one reason or another, and that'll change the industry pretty thoroughly when it does happen.

Lots of stuff "won't happen" until it does and the big speculation at the moment is that Google might eventually convince itself that the adtech business is the only business worth being in.

[booi]

There were multiple companies forced off Google Maps because of a pricing change. This could absolutely happen and has happened before.

[Clewza313]

That's very different from Google deciding to shut down Maps.

[Dylan16807]

If a big chunk of the companies that are using it have to stop, I wouldn't say it's all that different.

[bushbaba]

Gcp is not profitable. It’s burning billions per year.

Google can’t keep that up forever. It killed plenty of other cash burning projects.