Google Cloud Next event is in the books, an event that brought no shortage of news and intrigue — including Google LLC’s strategic bid to redefine the cloud landscape through the power of artificial intelligence integration. It was an event that changed significantly, according to theCUBE industry analyst John Furrier.
In December 2022, Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai reportedly had “upended” dozens of executive meetings and the New York Times claimed the company saw tools such as ChatGPT as a “code red” threat. That essentially was Pichai saying that the company was not going to lose out on AI, according to Furrier.
“That was a home-field advantage opportunity for Google. Their investment in AI is well-documented,” Furrier (pictured, left) said on the latest episode of theCUBE Podcast. “They do a lot of stuff. They write the papers. They have DeepMind and all that other great deep learning talents for search. And they just had to go in and cobble it together. But they definitely put it front and center [at Google Cloud Next]. It was all about AI.”
This put things in stark comparison to the Amazon Web Services Inc. lead-in to its AWS re:Invent conference at the end of November. It will see AWS under a lot of pressure, prompting Furrier to say something he never has before — that AWS is at risk of getting knocked down a few pegs. That’s because of the competition on display from Google.
“They took direct shots at AWS, direct shots at [Microsoft Corp.], from a strategy and execution standpoint. They moved the ball down the field; they moved the needle,” Furrier said. “Then, they’ve got the ecosystem, so they could pull the trifecta of cloud moves, and then move up a position, [if not] down the road, to get the top spot.”
Last year, theCUBE spoke with AWS CEO Adam Selipsky, in which he talked about large language models. This came before the ChatGPT announcement and was before AWS re:Invent 2022. Though the company didn’t announce it at re:Invent, it wasn’t as though it wasn’t working on these issues, according to theCUBE industry analyst Dave Vellante (right). It could be more of a public relations issue, he noted.
“I think it’s somewhat overblown. I do think Amazon is going to have a tougher time stitching together all of the bespoke pieces,” he said. “It seemed to me, John, that your point about the trifecta, one of those is solutions. And Google does seem to do a really good job of providing some solutions.”
Duet AI in particular is an example of that. Low-code and no-code have been so elusive for years but were front and center this past week, Vellante added.
Is Amazon playing scared?
Much like Google — though perhaps not to the same degree — Amazon.com Inc. has long had AI all over its other businesses. It’s very savvy with natural language processing and the technology involved in data and AI, according to Furrier. But the generative AI piece particularly could serve to be a weak link. That’s because the company doesn’t have the foundational model dominance that OpenAI LP has, and Microsoft has beat it to the punch in integrating it.
“Google basically did the same thing with Duet, and their Vertex AI platform is positioning to go up head-to-head against AWS,” Furrier said. “That’s a good thing for Google and a good thing for competition.”
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has previously said on theCUBE that competition is good for the company. The difference this time is going to be whether Amazon can handle the competition, according to Furrier. But from a public perception standpoint, the way that the company is treating its partners right now suggests that it is playing scared, he added.
On the other hand, it could be that the company could just have blind spots, according to Vellante.
“They’ve been so successful and so powerful, and they’ve been able to sort of dictate the game,” he said. “When companies get that strong, and that profitable, in any business, whether its ecosystems or competitions, they say, ‘Hey, I want a piece of that action.’”
Watch the full podcast below to find out why these industry pros were mentioned:
Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet
Adam Selipsky, CEO of Amazon Web Services
Andy Jassy, president and CEO at Amazon.com
Rob Strechay, analyst at SiliconANGLE Media
Dustin Kirkland, experienced engineer, product manager, executive and advisor
Sanjay Poonen, president and CEO of Cohesity
Jensen Huang, president, co-founder and CEO of Nvidia
George Gilbert, principal at TechAlpha Partners
Will Hurd, American politician
Chris Christie, American politician
Asa Hutchinson, American politician
Keith Alexander, chairman and founder at IronNet Cybersecurity
Mitch McConnell, minority leader of the U.S. Senate
Joe Biden, 46th president of the U.S.
George W. Bush, 43rd president of the U.S.
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Photo: SiliconANGLE
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