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Google Cuts Price of Cloud Computing
Microsoft did it just one week ago, and Amazon Web Services may be coming soon.
Google has dropped the price of its Compute Engine by 10 percent, the latest shot in the cloud price wars that followed Microsoft's reduction of Azure rates a week ago.
Google's Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President, Technical Infrastructure, stated in a blog post that the cuts are due only to the application of Moore's Law. "We believe that compute — the core of any cloud workload — should be simple and fast to provision, scale without effort, and be priced in accordance with Moore's Law," he wrote.
That Law came into effect today with the cut, Hölzle blogged. It affects all instance types and every region. "These cuts are a result of increased efficiency in our data centers as well as falling hardware costs," he added.
He didn't say anything about pricing pressure applied by Microsoft's Azure cuts Sept. 25. Microsoft cut prices across the board for a host of services, including backup, data transfer, SQL Server and more. But whether or not the Google cuts were a response to Microsoft's discounts, it's clear that a battle is going on.
The battle includes Amazon Web Services (AWS), which hasn't cut prices for several months, but had a substantial cut in April. Rumors are swirling that Amazon may cut prices again in the wake of the Google and Microsoft's cuts. In the blog posting announcing the April cut, Amazon noted that the reduction was the 42nd it's had since 2008.
The Google Compute Engine is the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) part of the Google Cloud Platform, used to spin up Linux virtual machines (VMs). The previous cost per hour for a single-core VM was $0.07, and is now $0.063. Prices are very slightly higher in Europe.
About the Author
Keith Ward is the editor in chief of Virtualization & Cloud Review. Follow him on Twitter @VirtReviewKeith.