As expected, Google just announced a cloud that will take on Amazon's Web Service cloud head-to-head.
Stay tuned. We'll update with details as we get them.
Here's what we know so far.
It is called Google Compute Engine.
Like Amazon's Web Service, it will let users run their own "virtual" computers -- meaning you can manage your online servers just like they were real servers sitting next to you. That's what Amazon does.
It offer multiple ways to store data and it will let applicatons run really, really fast because it will use Google's own global network.
It is opened for limited beta right now.
Here's it's jab at Amazon... it will be cheaper and bigger. Google says it will offer "50% more power per dollar" – which is a fancy way of saying about 37% cheaper.
This cloud is already running really big applications that use the equivalent of 10,000 computers. But it can go even more huge -- like 600,000 computers -- basically a supercomputer.
"You all have access to what we have internally to Google," says vice president of Chrome at Google, Sundar Pichai.
Google has been offering some cloud services for a while. App Engine let's users upload their applications onto Google's cloud. But App Engine hides all the hardware from the users. Google Compute Engine is new service is more of a direct competitor to Amazon.
It's going to be an attractive option for Web startups and enterprises alike. Most Web startups use Amazon but Amazon sometimes suffers from very public outages that can take them offline.
