Microsoft, Google and Cloud Wars
[image credit NY Times]
BusinessWeek published an interesting take on the brewing data center wars this week. They interviewed Debra Chrapaty, our Corporate Vice President of Global Foundation Services who is pretty bullish about our plans and progress. Some of the nuggets I took away
- Debra says that "Google has done a great job of hyping" its prowess "But we're neck and neck with them.". I like it. Fighting talk – along with “We're going to reinvent the infrastructure of our industry”
- BusinessWeek, quoting an anonymous source suggests Microsoft is planning “some 20 supersize data centers that can cost as much as $1 billion apiece”.
- In the current climate (or maybe any climate) Matt Rosoff, from Directions on Microsoft notes that there are really only two companies with the appetite to build data centers out on this scale and "throw several billion dollars into something like this," he says.
- On fact that took me by surprise is that our Our San Antonio datacenter that recently opened was completed in just 9 months. I was thinking these things too at least a year. Explains Debra’s bullishness perhaps?
The final part that I think it beginning to gain some traction is the different approach we’re taking from Google in our quest to collaborate with the industry on data centers. We’re sharing our learning's and as Dell says, looking “to drive innovation forward, to get great minds engaged”.
This story is going to rumble on for sure but I feel good about our progress and plans. All part of the Software plus Services approach
sidenote: Debra is included in the dream team photo in the recent Wired article on Ray Ozzie.