Google is working to convince its cloud customers they can count on it for product and feature stability with Google Enterprise APIs.
Google has a long history of killing off its own products suddenly. App Maker, Loon, Google Hangouts, Google Play Music, Game Builder, Google Jump, Google+ and Chromebook Pixel are just a few of the projects and products Google has killed.
Unfortunately for the company, having a reputation for killing off its own products is not conducive to gaining cloud market share, a core goal of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian. The company is now taking steps to address its reputation, with its new Enterprise APIs.
At Google Cloud, we’ve been implementing programs to enhance your trust in our platform; for example, we introduced Mission Critical Services, a consultative offering for customers with top-tier Premium Support, and simplified launch stages, for greater predictability of our product roadmap.
Today, we’re taking it one step further by introducing designated Google Enterprise APIs, a label applied to the vast majority of APIs across Google Cloud, Google Workspace, and Google Maps Platform (not inclusive of our consumer APIs). Built for higher stability, Google Enterprise APIs are governed by new tenets, a stringent set of requirements about how and when we make changes to them.
Given Kurian’s goal of becoming the number two cloud provider in five years, in terms of market share, Enterprise APIs are a step in the right direction. In fact, it makes one wonder why the company didn’t take such a step sooner.
Of course, if Google wasn’t so kill-happy with its own products, it wouldn’t need to do anything to convince customers it won’t kill its own products.