Google questions Microsoft’s definition of cloud computing
Recently representatives from Microsoft and Google duked it out at the Structure 09 Conference. The two sides discussed some of the challenges as well as approaches to honing in on infrastructure performance. One of the claims made from Google is that the company practices a more absolute cloud computing implementation than Microsoft.
According to The Register, Vijay Gill, Google senior manager of engineering and architecture and Najam Ahmad, Microsoft global networking services general manager took the stage for a panel discussion on infrastructure practices and philosophies. Ahmad talked about some of the challenges Microsoft has with optimizing performance on its distributed system, which consist of various applications.
Ahmad indicated that the solution for improving performance has been to use a mix of difference approaches to solving issues. He states, “We’re looking at a mixture of approaches and trying to solve problems for specific applications and types of applications.”
Gill interjected that Microsoft’s approach to solving the performance problem is not as good as Google’s. He stated, “our approach is a little more absolute than [Microsoft's]… not only does getting to the end user have to be fast, but the back-end has to be extremely fast too.” He also states, “[We are] virtualizing the entire fabric so you get maximum utilization and speed on a global basis as opposed to local fixes.”
Gill indicates that anyone can build a bunch of data centers and link them together, but the real challenge is the approach. There is challenge not only getting the applications to use the built infrastructure, but efficiently distribute on it while optimizing it. Basically, Gill is selling Google’s powerful Google File System along with BigTable and MapReduce.
Gill also points out that Google uses a more horizontally distributed infrastructure compared to Microsoft, which is a bit more vertical. He also points out that their infrastructure is closer to cloud computing by definition, which also allows them to have the best performance. Ultimately, Gill is basically taking a few jabs at Microsoft and its new search (decision) engine Bing by indicating that Microsoft may need to overcome fundamental infrastructure hurdles before it can even think about taking on Google.
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July 2nd, 2009
…sounds like a pissing contest to me…