Welcome to the Cloud Wars Minute — your daily cloud news and commentary show. Each episode provides insights and perspectives around the “reimagination machine” that is the cloud.
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00:18 — Think back about 19 or 20 months ago when OpenAI launched ChatGPT. With Microsoft as its primary customer, Microsoft gained a lot of visibility and first-mover status in the world. Since then, Google Cloud has been working hard to close the gap. Last week it introduced a couple of new models that directly challenge offerings from OpenAI and, therefore, Microsoft.
01:25 — Google Cloud is trying to have Vertex AI perceived as the most “enterprise-ready” GenAI platform. It is doing that by rolling out lots and lots of new products that specifically meet the needs of enterprise customers. Within the Google Cloud model, it has three different variations in the high end, the middle, and the low end.
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02:22 — Gemini 1.5 Flash is one of these new models that has come in. Google Cloud says it feels it is ideal for things like retail chat, document processing, and as a research agent that can process enormous volumes of data. It cites some impressive customer applications, from Uber Eats, Ipsos, and a couple of others.
03:43 — I realize this stuff can get a bit technical and might make your eyes glaze over if you’re not deep into AI technology. I don’t want to go overboard with this. The key point is that this is becoming an incredibly intense competitive area. Microsoft and OpenAI had the first-mover status, but Google Cloud is pushing back very hard and trying to jump ahead.
04:41 — I think it’s a powerful battleground where ultimately more enterprises will jump into the fray. Microsoft claims to be the most enterprise-ready, and Google Cloud wants to claim that title too. As is often the case in the Cloud Wars, it will be a big win for customers.