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Google to launch BigTable this week?

Summary: It sounds like the press is being briefed on a new service Google is about to release to developers -- possibly as early as this week. The service is called BigTable, and it has been proving itself for quite a while as the storage engine behind many Google services.

Garett Rogers

By Garett Rogers for Googling Google |

It sounds like the press is being briefed on a new service Google is about to release to developers -- possibly as early as this week. The service is called BigTable, and it has been proving itself for quite a while as the storage engine behind many Google services.

BigTable is based on the Google File System (GFS) and designed for distribution across thousands of commodity servers that collectively store petabytes of data. Services that rely on it include Google Search, Google Earth and Maps, Google Finance, Google Print, Orkut, YouTube, and Blogger.

People are saying they expect BigTable to be direct competition for Amazon SimpleDB -- and I'd have to agree. The only thing I'm wondering about is the pricing strategy. A post from March 29th hinted that it could actually be free, compared to the pay-per-use pricing model for Amazon's equivalent service.

SimpleDB from Amazon has the following costs assocated with it:

  • $0.14 per machine hour
  • $0.10 per GB inbound data transfer
  • $0.13-$0.18 per GB outbound data transfer
  • $1.50 GB/mo data storage

If you think about it, those prices are very reasonable -- but Google has the guts to do even better. Potentially much better. If Google opened this up as a free service, imagine the impact that would have. I'm not one hundred percent sure how Google could monetize a service like this if they did make it free though -- some people think it could be a way for them to save money on acquisitions. Imagine how much time and effort could be saved if a company purchased by Google already uses Google's technology?

What do you think? Will Google make BigTable free, or will it be competitively priced with the Amazon equivalent?

Topics: Amazon, Google, Hardware, Storage

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19 comments
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  • Stop publishing PR on behalf of Google

    My god, yet anoter press release from the press release junkies Google!

    And what to ZDNet do, simply publish it.

    This is so borig it is not funny. The only thing Google have successfully monetised and gained any relevenat market share worth writing about is Search and Google Maps. So, why does ZDNet give so much attention to Press Releases come out of Google?

    I am seriosly concerned that ZDNet and it's writers have some sort of quiet, cosy financial relationship to give Google so much unwarranted and undeserving press.

    That is the only thing which would explain the amount of coverage you give Google.

    Cover them on Search and Mapping no problems, but please stop pandering to their press machine.
    Martin_Australia
    Reply Vote

    • I guess you hate all of the interest in Google. But, Google is helping

      change the world, like Microsoft did in the 90s. There is a lot of excitement, and we want to know all the details.
      DonnieBoy
      Reply Vote

      • You have me wrong

        So please tell me what innovation Google has introduced which has revolutionised or changed the industry other than Search and Maps?

        Google apps is at less then 0.5% according to NPD and they have not monetised it or anything else they have released. Android is hardly innovative and hradly going to change the world.

        We have heard it all from everyone over and over again almost every year. Linux and Open Sourve have been touted as changing the world for more than 6 years.

        As I said I have no issue and do have an interest in what Google does around Search and Mapping but based upon their impact with apps in the cloud, operating systems and almost everything else they have no revenue or market share to warrant the amount of press coverage they get. That's it, no sinister motives here I just think tere are way more innovative and emerging technologies and companies around who deserve much more focus compared to Google.
        Martin_Australia
        Reply Vote

        • Gmail? Google Docs?

          I see major upgrades from hotmail and yahoo mail whenever something happens at Google...

          1GB storage? Friendly UIs? Better SPAM protection? All are catchups based on the Gmail development.

          And what about Microsoft Office's online version? Direct competitor against Google docs.

          And of course there's the whole Google Code repository, many APIs, etc; All of which are important and very much used in the developer world, and consumers don't know exist.

          You can't deny Google is moving things forward in everything they do.
          kamahl928
          Reply Vote

        • By analogy

          So, please tell me what innovation Microsoft has done to
          change the industry <b>other than</b> software?

          To the point, billion dollar companies with new initiatives
          that will probably scale to millions of users will always get
          attention.
          warren@...
          Reply Vote

          • MS - lets se

            clear text
            media center
            tablet PC
            multi-display technology
            terra server
            Paul Fletcher
            Reply Vote

          • All software setups

            The technology in these have been around for ages... All microsoft did was package it in gift wrap, code a nice GUI for it, and claim they made it!
            kamahl928
            Reply Vote

      • RE: Google to launch BigTable this week?

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  • Well, Google needs to cover costs, but could give it away to start to drive

    adoption. But, I have been thinking for a long time that Google needs to get into the platform business. Hopefully Google Apps MyDomain users will get more options for hosting their own web applications.
    DonnieBoy
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Google to launch BigTable this week?

    It strikes me that the prospective launch described above easily qualifies for mention on [b][i]?ZDNet[/i][/b], and where more appropriately than [b]Garett Rogers[/b]' blog ? Opinions may reasonably differ as to how well [b]Google[/b] will succeed in this move, but that the above belongs in the category ?news that's fit to print? seem obvious....

    Henri
    mhenriday
    Reply Vote

  • They could make it free

    Google is the kind of company who I think could manage to offer this service for free and survive, although there won't be a easy way to monetize ads with this service so that leaves the financial feasibility up in the air. But if there's a way, I'm betting Google will find it and offer the service for free. If they can't find a way to offer the service for free, I have no doubt that they'll offer it at a price lower then what Amazon is offering.

    - John Musbach
    John Musbach
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Google to launch BigTable this week?

    One Off the BAD habbit of google is "Advertisment". They put their Advertisments with every Good service. SO i am sure Google will do something like that, if they Lauch BigTable as a free servie. ANd people who Hate Google Advertisment habbit they will prefere Amazon's SimpleDB service. Its really very clean and simple service. Only People need to download tool(software) for using SimpleDB service. Its one of the tool is launched By Chambal.com ( http://www.sdbexplorer.com ). Which will be available soon for Public Use.
    tiggem1993
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  • RE: Google to launch BigTable this week?

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