Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian spoke at the Google Cloud Next event in San Francisco on April 9, 2019. Google is aiming to make cloud computing more cost-effective by introducing a custom Arm-based server chip. This new processor is set to be available later in 2024.
With this new Arm-based chip, Google is catching up to competitors like Amazon and Microsoft, who have already been implementing similar strategies for years. These tech giants are heavily competing in the cloud infrastructure market, where organizations rent out resources in distant data centers and pay based on usage.
While Google’s parent company Alphabet still generates the majority of its revenue from advertising, the cloud segment is growing rapidly and now contributes almost 11% to company revenue. Google’s cloud infrastructure market share in 2022 was 7.5%, whereas Amazon and Microsoft collectively controlled around 62%, according to estimates from Gartner.
Amazon Web Services introduced its Arm chip, Graviton, in 2018. Meanwhile, Alibaba announced Arm processors in 2021, and Microsoft did the same in November of that year. Google has been offering access to virtual machines that use Arm-based chips earlier this year.
Porting applications to Arm machines makes financial sense for organizations looking to cut costs on cloud computing. Arm chips, like Graviton, have shown up to 40% better price performance compared to x86 server instances commonly used by AMD and Intel processors.
Google has been using Arm-based server computers internally for various purposes. These chips will gradually be moved to cloud-based Axion instances once they are available. Datadog, Elastic, OpenX, and Snap are among the companies planning to adopt Axion.
Broader adoption of Arm-based chips could lead to reduced carbon emissions for certain workloads. The Axion chips offer better energy efficiency and performance compared to x86-based VMs in the cloud.
Axion provides 30% better performance than the fastest general-purpose Arm-based VMs in the cloud and 50% better performance than comparable x86-based VMs. Google aims to expand its portfolio with Axion chips.
In a blog post, Google’s cloud chief Thomas Kurian highlighted the energy efficiency and speed improvements that Arm chips bring to applications. The shift to Arm-based chips could benefit organizations looking to improve performance and reduce costs in their cloud operations.
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian announced at the Google Cloud Next event in San Francisco that the company is introducing a custom-built Arm-based server chip to make cloud computing more affordable. This new processor is expected to become available later in 2024. Google is playing catch-up with rivals Amazon and Microsoft, who have been using similar strategies for years in the competitive market for cloud infrastructure. Despite Alphabet still deriving the majority of its revenue from advertising, the cloud segment is rapidly growing and now represents almost 11% of company revenue, and Google holds 7.5% of the cloud infrastructure market. Amazon Web Services introduced its Graviton Arm chip in 2018 and has since seen success with companies like Datadog, Elastic, Snowflake, and Sprinklr adopting the chip. Alibaba and Microsoft have also announced Arm processors, and Google has already implemented Arm-based chips in internal systems to run various applications. The new Arm-based chip, named Axion, is expected to offer 30% better performance than existing Arm-based virtual machines and 50% better performance than comparable x86-based virtual machines. The use of Arm-based chips may also lead to lower carbon emissions for certain workloads, as they deliver 60% more energy efficiency. Organizations such as Datadog, Elastic, OpenX, and Snap plan to adopt Axion, and Google aims to gradually transition its internal systems over to the new chips as well. Overall, the introduction of the custom-built Arm-based chip will enhance Google’s cloud computing offerings and enable more cost-effective and energy-efficient solutions for organizations.
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