Google does not use GCP extensively internally
One of the interesting things about Google is that they don’t use GCP extensively internally:
The only Big Tech not using its own cloud for new products
Google is in a position where none of its “core” products run GCP infrastructure: not Search, not YouTube, not Gmail, not Google Docs, nor Google Calendar. New projects are built on PROD by default, not GCP.
Contrast this with Amazon and Microsoft, which do the opposite:
Amazon: almost fully on AWS, and everything new is built on it. Almost all services have moved over to AWS. The “modern stack” is NAWS (Native AWS) and all new projects use it. The rest of the stack is MAWS (Move to AWS); legacy systems yet to move to AWS.
Microsoft: heavy use of Azure, with everything new built on it. Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, Xbox Live, and GitHub Actions and Copilot operate on top of Azure. Acquisitions like LinkedIn and GitHub are gradually moving to Azure, on which every new project is built by default.
Why do Google’s engineering teams resist GCP?
No “planet-scale” support out of the box. A common reason to start with PROD is that it means if the product or service surges in popularity, it can grow infinitely without an infrastructure migration.
Superior developer experience with PROD. Spanner is an obvious case; in general, tools built on PROD are much better and easier to work for Google devs.
Historic aversion to GCP. 5-10 years ago it was hard to make a case to build anything on GCP. Back then, it was missing several internal systems that were must-haves for internal projects, such as auditing and access controls iterating with internal systems. These days, this has changed but the aversion to GCP hasn’t.