Google is currently expanding its cloud services in Switzerland
From the beginning of 2019, companies will be able to store their data in a data center in Zurich. The world's largest search engine provider has its sights set on Swiss banks, as Head of Technology Urs Hölzle said in an interview with Handelszeitung.
"The Swiss banks were a key reason for launching the cloud region in Switzerland," said Google employee number eight. It would also send a signal to other companies if the highly regulated banks stored their data in the cloud. The names of customers that Google has acquired will be communicated "in due course".
The potential market for Google in the cloud business is enormous - bigger than the advertising market. "It is estimated to be worth around 1 trillion dollars," explains Hölzle. The prerequisite for this is, of course, that cloud services become established on the market. "But I think it's only a matter of time," said the Swiss national.
The market leader in the cloud business today is by far Amazon with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Hölzle is nevertheless optimistic. For Google, it is not about taking customers away from Amazon. "Our market is those who are not yet on a cloud." Because today there are only a few companies, such as Spotify or Netflix, that have made the leap to the cloud. So far, less than 10 percent of work processes have been effectively moved to the cloud.
Zurich location benefits
The Zurich location has already benefited from the expansion of cloud services, said Hölzle. "Google and, in second place, Warsaw are the most important locations for the internal development of the cloud in Europe." A significant proportion of the 1,000 employees that Google has hired in Switzerland since 2015 are related to the cloud. Google Switzerland currently employs 2500 people. The new location on Europa-Allee in Zurich would allow the company to expand to 5000 employees. (SDA)
