If Google is ever going to fix their cloud market share problem[1], they need to reverse the deeply engrained perception that they don't support or maintain their services for the long term.
The majority of Hacker News pundits will all have the same gut reaction to these kinds of anecdotes: complete and total lack of surprise. And although not all of us are in a position to control the vast budgets of the enterprises that drive much of this marketshare, the opinions of the rank and file do have a vast impact and I believe Google's unstable support and product commitment is one of the biggest things holding them back.
I just want to say that Google's supposed lack of support is just a perception, despite all the usual comments below.
Real example: we use Appengine, and the other day I spotted a bug in a request handler. I filed an issue on the Appengine issue tracker, and have been having a back and forth conversation with a a very real (and very skilled) engineer about how to resolve it. This is outside our support contract, so anyone with an software issue has exactly the same access.
This doesn't cover situations such as the OP experienced, of course - but if they had a support contract, I think they'd have found the issue was resolved quickly and efficiently. We pay $150 a month for a silver support contract, and when we've needed help, we've got personal, prompt and effective support.
At the end of the day, you get what you pay for. If your organisation depends on any service, you need effective support, and you need to pay for it. That goes for Microsoft, Amazon, Salesforce or anyone else - good support costs a lot, and they all have to cover costs. Each company uses a different model, and some include more support costs in their base charges than others.
I happen to like Google's model where dipping your toe in the water costs very little, and when your service proves itself you can ramp up support as you need it. But it leaves Google open to criticism like this the OPs, who let their small project grow big without contingency planning and then complains when something goes wrong.
Finally, the only reason I'm commenting here is that I was so impressed with the support from the engineer mentioned above that I said I would mention him next time Google's perceived lack of support came up on HN. Promise kept!
You are soo right. I really want Google to succeed (more competition the better), but I hear things like this and I'm just blown away. They are already fighting a reputation for abandoning projects when it suits them (yes, mainly consumer applications, but the perception persists) and doing this just makes it worse. C'mon Google ... hire some marketing people that know what they are doing and sort out your customer perception issues.
The majority of Hacker News pundits will all have the same gut reaction to these kinds of anecdotes: complete and total lack of surprise. And although not all of us are in a position to control the vast budgets of the enterprises that drive much of this marketshare, the opinions of the rank and file do have a vast impact and I believe Google's unstable support and product commitment is one of the biggest things holding them back.
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/25/technology/google-races-to...