At its annual I/O Conference in June, Google Inc. announced it was venturing into the infrastructure-as-a service market, a space owned almost entirely by Amazon. While Amazon has so far managed to fend off all challengers, Google’s got valuable brand cachet and a huge market footprint (a friend of mine defends his use of a smart phone based on Google’s Android mobile operating system by saying, “My life is in Google”).
Can Google be the one to upend Amazon in the IaaS space? In this analysis, Investors Mosaic runs down the pros and cons of Google in the IaaS space from an investment perspective, and why, if not for revenue, Google’s moving in this space. Hint: It’s all about market share.