Google has a virtual desktop software Cloudtop that allows employees to access the company’s internal programs at home. This software helps employees work from home and maintain productivity. However, an anonymous person familiar with Google’s cloud business revealed that when Google’s cloud customers request virtual desktop solutions, Google will not introduce Cloudtop to customers, but provide customers with third-party virtual desktop solutions.
Google’s approach is in sharp contrast with the market leaders Amazon and Microsoft in this regard. Both companies have their own virtual desktop services, and the utilization rate of these services has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. For many companies that are working remotely on a large scale for the first time, instead of letting administrators manage servers on-site or mailing PCs to new employees, it is better to let cloud providers handle these infrastructure matters, which is more convenient.
During the COVID-19 pandemic last year, due to the surge in new customers of Zoom, the company registered more than 1,000 Amazon WorkSpaces virtual desktops for its service desk employees. Also in May last year, oil and gas pipeline operator TC Energy signed a contract with Amazon WorkSpaces so that its employees can work safely at home.
In addition, in the first quarter of last year, the usage of Microsoft’s Windows virtual desktop service also tripled. Because of the new crown epidemic, many companies had to deploy virtual devices and applications on Microsoft’s Azure to allow employees to work remotely from home. However, Google has no plans to provide customers with its Cloudtop virtual desktop service.
In 2017, Google provided its employees with Cloudtop services for the first time. The purpose is to help them build software, interact with internal systems, and communicate through a multi-person online chat system. Cloud top can provide virtual desktops for Linux and Windows operating systems to facilitate source code testing.
Join Our RealMi Central Channel On Telegram
In fact, Google has already developed some software before, such as Cloud Bigtable and Cloud Spanner database. Google’s core Internet business relies on this software. Google also published related academic papers describing the underlying architecture of this software. The development of this software has left a deep impression on the information technology industry.
In 2018, Google published a paper on Cloud top. According to reports, more than 25% of Google employees use Cloudtop, and Google also migrated the software from the company’s infrastructure to the public cloud to improve employee experience and reduce the total cost of ownership. However, Cloudtop has not been transformed into a product for external customers.
Google said that although people’s demand for remote working virtual desktops continues to increase, it currently does not plan to provide Cloudtop as a cloud service to the outside world. On the contrary, Google will give priority to providing third-party virtual desktop products, such as Itopia, Citrix, Workspot and other companies’ products.
Google claims that by promoting partner products, customers can extend the technology they use in the data center to the public cloud so that they will not be constrained by proprietary services.
Since the emergence of the new crown epidemic, Google’s third-party virtual desktop products have developed strongly. In 2020, Citrix’s virtual desktop service revenue increased by 13% year-on-year, compared with 5% in 2019. Citrix’s gross profit margin is close to 85%, which is higher than 97% of the companies in the S&P 500 Index. To a certain extent, this growth is good for Google because it can get 20% of the fees charged by third parties to customers.
However, according to people familiar with Google’s cloud business, the products of these third-party companies have not produced a sensational effect. Some experts said: “Google’s mediocre performance in this area is a bit surprising.”
If you like our news and you want to see such news even further, then follow RealMi Central on Telegram, Twitter, Facebook (Page) (Group) & Instagram.