Google's cloud business to grow 84%, predicts research

Research firm Technology Business Research expects Google's cloud business to grow 84% annually to $1.6B in 2014.

While Google apps provides a broad customer base and inroads into the government and education sectors, the cloud platform which consists of Google App and Google Compute engines, has the ability to transform the market alongside AWS, said Jillian Mirandi, Senior Analyst, TBRI.

The ability to continuously innovate, launch and improve products has been a key differentiator for AWS thus far, and will be a differentiator for Google too, launching both companies ahead of the market, but in greater competition with each other.

Google platform's enterprise strategy is different than AWS' enterprise strategy in that Google does not, at this time, want to work directly with enterprise customers. Google is targeting ISVs looking to SaaSify their solutions, and then will leverage those ISVs, along with MSPs, as a channel to the enterprise.

One of the more forward looking investments Google is making is Kubernetes, Google's open source technology for managing Docker containers. Technology that comes out of Kubernetes and paired with Google Endpoints (launched in November) will help customers solve an increasingly challenging problem stemming from cloud environments; managing, moving and substantiating cloud applications. To underscore the importance of the problem Google is trying to solve, competitors Microsoft and IBM, along with Red Hat, are supporting and contributing to the project.