​Microsoft and Meta have announced a partnership that will see features from both companies’ collaboration platforms integrate into one another to allow for cross-platform capabilities.

Formerly known as Facebook Workplace, Workplace by Meta will soon integrate features from Microsoft Teams into its own platform, such as livestreaming Teams video directly into Workplace groups.

The integration goes both ways and it will see certain Workplace content also becoming available to users on Teams.

Workplace will be integrated into Microsoft’s software using an app within Teams which can be pinned to its navigation bar, if a user wishes. Once selected, a Workplace ‘pane’ will become visible to the side of the UI, which can easily be hidden or re-opened.

The move is a significant step for the two platforms the collaboration software market as a whole. With the launch of Workplace by Facebook in late 2016 being closely followed by Microsoft Teams in March 2017, the two platforms were considered rivals in a contested market that had, up until then, been dominated by the likes of Slack.

Although Workplace is pitched as a much more rounded tool for creating company forums, and Teams is better suited for instant collaboration between smaller teams, the two platforms effectively target the same enterprise audience.

“One thing I learned from the pandemic is that companies don’t just rely on one tool to get their work done, so it is our responsibility as leaders in the space to make sure the tools they use integrate and interoperate with each other,” said Jeff Teper, CVP product and engineering at Microsoft Teams.

Users on both platforms will also be able to interact with meetings hosted on the other, such as commenting and offering emoji-driven reactions, without having to swap apps.

Workplace by Meta said Vodafone, Flight Centre Travel Group, and Lockton – three of its customers – have already been trialling the integration. Flight Centre Travel Group said they use Workplace to foster a cross-company community and use Teams for cross-company collaboration, adding that the integration allows staff to access the information they need quicker.

Ujjwal Singh, head of Workplace at Meta, also said the integration had specifically been requested by Workplace customers Vodafone and Accenture, according to CNBC.

«The way our customers end up using it is customers use the complementary features, not the competing features,» he told the broadcaster. «There are customers that are just Workplace shops, and then there are customers that are just Teams shops. This is really for those customers that use both.»

The announcement deepens the partnership between the two companies as they vie for market share in the collaboration space. Workplace already supports integration into Microsoft SharePoint, OneDrive, and the Office 365 suite.

Workplace can also be integrated into Microsoft Azure AD and was named in the top 15 apps used on the platform in 2020. Additionally, Microsoft Teams will become available on Meta Portal starting in December.

The integration comes as a free update which is available to download now, though customers will have to wait until later in 2022 before they can stream meetings and broadcasts from Teams into Workplace.

A third (32%) of UK workers are now being monitored at work using technology like tracking software and remotely controlled webcams.

The issue has worsened over the past six months, when workers being monitored stood at a quarter (24%) of those polled by Prospect.

The sharp increase comes amid a huge jump in webcam monitoring, with 13% of homeworkers currently being surveilled by their employer through their work-issued device. The figures have more than doubled in the past six months as just 5% of workers were monitored via video in April 2021.

The vast majority of those questioned thought the use of webcam monitoring by employers should either be banned (52%) or regulated (28%). Just 8% of employees reported feeling that employers should be able to monitor their webcam’s image at will.

Younger workers are thought to be particularly at risk of higher rates of monitoring by employers. Defined by an 18-34 age bracket, 48% of younger workers are believed to be monitored at home by employers, including 20% of those being monitored using a camera.

Microsoft is ending support for the OneDrive desktop application for users of older Windows versions starting in 2022.

Updates for the personal version of the application will cease on 1 January 2022 for anyone still using Windows 7, 8, and 8.1.

Microsoft suggests upgrading to a newer version of its operating system (OS) to keep the same secure experience, according to a blog post making the announcement.

OneDrive for business users will receive support for the desktop application aligned with the respective support lifecycles of the OS their devices run. 

Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users will see extended support until 10 January 2023, while Windows 8 reached the end of support on 12 January 2016.

All personal OneDrive applications will stop syncing to the cloud on 1 March 2022 as Microsoft appears to be making the next step towards shifting its users to newer versions of Windows. 

All files stored locally on the OneDrive desktop app will remain accessible in the app however, users will either have to upgrade to a newer OS or upload their files via OneDrive for web in order to sync files to the cloud.

Mainstream support ended for Windows 8 in 2016, Windows 8.1 two years later in 2018, and Windows 7 in 2020 – the more popular of the three versions.

Microsoft announced earlier this year, ahead of the Windows 11 launch announcement, that Windows 10 will also be going ‘end of life’ in 2025.

Currently, the most popular OS used worldwide, Windows 10 has just a few years of security updates left before the 14 October 2025 end date.

Windows 11 launched on 5 October 2022 with a new look and strong UI improvements, such as better window management. Experts said at the time there was a strong likelihood that businesses will be slow to adopt the new OS – perhaps taking a year or longer – due to concerns over availability and app compatibility. 

Microsoft has announced a brand-new security suite designed specifically for the threats faced by small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

Microsoft Defender for Business was announced at Microsoft Ignite 2021 today and it will aim to bring what Microsoft is calling its «enterprise-grade endpoint security» found in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and optimising it for companies with 300 employees or fewer.

Entering public preview later this month, it will be available as a standalone product for businesses to purchase at a rate of $3 (£2.20) per user, or alternatively the new tools will be available as part of a Microsoft 365 Business Premium subscription.

Specifically designed to protect businesses against malware and ransomware across Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android devices, Defender for Business will have the following features:

• Threat and vulnerability management: allows customers to build a secure foundation by identifying and addressing software vulnerabilities and misconfigurations
• Attack surface reduction: Using capabilities such as ransomware mitigation, application control, web protection, network protection, network firewall, and attack surface reduction rules, SMBs’ attack surface can shrink
• Endpoint detection and response (EDR): Behavioural-based detection and response alerts allowing SMBs to identify persistent threats and remove them from their environments
• Automated investigation and remediation: reduces alert volume and remediates threats. SMBs can automate Defender for Business to carry out tasks automatically, allowing them to prioritise the most important tasks
• APIs and integration: allows SMBs to automate workflows and integrate security data into their existing security platforms and reporting tools

IT managed service providers will also have the option to use Microsoft Defender for Business with Microsoft 365 Lighthouse, applying the product’s endpoint security production for multiple customers as they monitor security events with a multi-customer view.

“Small and medium businesses will be empowered to elevate their security by moving from traditional antivirus to next-gen protection, endpoint detection and response, and threat and vulnerability management – all while taking advantage of simplified setup and management,” said Microsoft on the announcement.

According to Microsoft’s own research, almost 60% of SMBs report not feeling adequately equipped to contend with today’s ever-widening cyber security threat landscape, citing insufficient resources and a lack of specialised security skills as the reason. 

Microsoft said Defender for Business requires no specialist knowledge in order to install and manage effectively. It has a wizard-driven set-up and it will recommend security policies out of the box to expedite the process.

Among Microsoft’s myriad Ignite 2021 announcements, on the security side of things Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps (formerly Microsoft Cloud App Security) has added a new
application governance capability which is generally available as of today. It aims to help identify and alert the customer to risky behaviour across data, users, and applications.

Defender for Cloud also received an update to multi-cloud environment control. Customers can now secure Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS) environments from one place, giving users the same experience as they would find in AWS Security Hub.

Google and Microsoft reported their latest quarterly earnings on Tuesday with cloud services and hybrid work proving a boon for both tech giants. 

Microsoft announced that for Q1 2022, it recorded $45.3 billion (£32.9 billion) in revenue, an increase of 22%, while profits were also up an impressive 48% at $20.5 billion (£14.9 billion).

Google’s Q3 2021 earnings revealed a continuation of its long-running track record of smashing revenue figures year after year. It amassed reveue of $65.1 billion (£47.4 billion) for the three month period, which represents a a 41% increase compared to Q3 in 2020 which stood at  $46.1 billion (£33.5 billion).

Following the earnings announcement, Google’s share price soared just shy of 18 points (0.65%) while Microsoft enjoyed a similar increase of 0.64%.

Commenting on the news, Sundar Pichai, CEO at Alphabet and Google, said: “Five years ago, I laid out our vision to become an AI-first company. This quarter’s results show how our investments there are enabling us to build more helpful products for people and our partners.

«Ongoing improvements to Search, and the new Pixel 6, are great examples. And as the digital transformation and shift to hybrid work continue, our Cloud services are helping organisations collaborate and stay secure.”

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, said: “Digital technology is a deflationary force in an inflationary economy. Businesses – small and large – can improve productivity and the affordability of their products and services by building tech intensity.

“The Microsoft Cloud delivers the end-to-end platforms and tools organisations need to navigate this time of transition and change.”

One commonality from both companies’ earnings is that cloud services drove figures higher, and in Google’s case, much higher than ever before.

Google generated an additional $1.5 billion (£1.09 billion) revenue for Google Cloud this quarter compared to Q3 2020 with a total $4.9 billion (£3.5 billion). That said, Google Cloud is still operating at a loss with income down $644 million (£469.06 million) – quite a considerable drop and a bigger loss than last quarter which stood at $591 million (£430.6 million). Though the figures are improving year-on-year as Q3 2020’s losses stood at $1.2 billion (£874.6 million).

«With more than 40% year over year growth, Google experienced a huge jump, and one that even surpassed Wall Street’s original forecast,» said Anthony Denier, CEO at trading platform Webull.» The company’s earnings per share grew 71% year over year to $27.99 (£20.38) – way past the original estimate of $23.48 (£17.10).»

Microsoft’s cloud revenues continued to impress investors with Intelligent Cloud up 31% to $17 billion (£12.3 billion) while revenue from server products and cloud services increased 35%, driven by a business-leading revenue growth rate of 50% thanks to Azure and other cloud services.

Consumer and business Office services also enjoyed a strong quarter, factoring into rising cloud revenues too. Office Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 18%, largely driven by the 23% revenue growth of Office 365 Commercial. Office Consumer products and cloud services revenue increased 10% with consumer subscribers increasing to 54.1 million.

Other strong areas for Microsoft included LinkedIn revenue which increased 42% and Windows OEM revenue which increased 10%. Google reported consistently better results across most corners of the business. Search revenue was up to $37.9 billion (£27.6 billion) this quarter, a staggering $11 billion (£8 billion) increase year-on-year. 

A leading expert on competition law has published a report illustrating the «unfair» and «anti-competitive» licensing practices enforced by major tech firms on customers globally.

Microsoft and Oracle are the primary targets of the report, which details the alleged long-running anti-competitive practices used by major firms in the software and cloud services industries.

Professor Frédéric Jenny’s research on cloud infrastructure service providers in Europe (CISPE) has been distributed to MEPs, the European Commission (EC) and the European Council as they debate and vote on the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

“Our research has shown that the position of certain large cloud infrastructure providers in the adjacent markets, notably Microsoft and Oracle, has enabled them to engage in potentially anti-competitive strategies to exclude other cloud infrastructure providers from the market,” the report authored by Jenny reads. “Moreover, these strategies have been an engine of growth for those integrated cloud service providers.”

The DMA is a legislative proposal brought forward by the EC to stamp out unfair and anti-competitive practices exhibited by digital platforms, typically those with dominant market positions looking to increase their share in adjacent markets.

It has been proposed following the recent high-profile US antitrust cases brought to the likes of Facebook and Google, but Jenny’s report takes aim at two other tech giants in particular.

Among other industry-wide unfair practices, the report accused Microsoft of enforcing unfair licensing costs and charging customers more to use Office and Server software on third-party cloud platforms, citing the case brought to Microsoft by the Danish Cloud Community and the European Commission in 2018. In this case, Microsoft raised the price for software subscriptions but left them untouched for customers using said software within its own cloud environments, Azure and Windows 365.

The report also accused Oracle of enforcing licensing restrictions which lead to a 10x increase in price when using Oracle software in a third-party cloud platform compared to running it on Oracle Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Oracle has also been criticised for enforcing technical and billing requirements on a per-CPU basis. 

“If Oracle software is used in Oracle IaaS then companies are only require to pay for the number of actual CPUs used while it used on third-part IaaS equipment, the company is required to pay for a licence for each CPU that could be used to run the software, whether or not it actually is,” the report said.

The researcher also conducted a series of interviews with cloud customers to gather further evidence against the unfair practices in the sector. These revealed additional practices such as limits to interoperability involving technical limitations such as enforcing proprietary languages to make migration more difficult, and switching costs which may be significant both in monetary and time-duration terms, the report notes.

Exclusionary licensing practices were also highlighted in the report with one case study reporting that Microsoft imposed an ‘after-the-fact’ change to its licensing policy after the customer decided to switch to Amazon Web Services (AWS). This saw the customer forced to pay for individual Office licenses on each computing instance, raising the annual cost tens of millions.

These examples of exclusionary licensing can also be found in third-party interfacing – accessing a service through a third-party application. SAP’s Indirect Access was cited as an example of this, whereby users incurred additional surcharges for accessing the SAP ecosystem through a third-party application, effectively creating an active log of ‘indirect usages of SAP software.

Other notable unfair practices include: artificially limiting data portability to make it expensive if not impossible to use competing cloud infrastructure and the removal of Bring Your Own Licence (BYOL) deals whereby customers are forced to pay again to use software they already own on competing cloud infrastructure.

“This independent study by Professor Jenny, a recognised economist, objectifies the observations made consistently by Cigref members over many years,» said Henri d’Agrain, Secretary General of Cigref, the French CIO Association.

«It provides a factual assessment of the economic consequences of the unfair practices that Cigref regularly denounces. It is important to regulate these practices, which are mainly carried out by non-European providers. These practices constitute an illegitimate drain on the European economy and contribute to stifling the digital innovation of European players through killing acquisitions.”

Alban Schmutz, Chairman of CISPE, concluded: “We’d heard from our members, and from their customers, that certain legacy software providers were limiting choice in cloud infrastructure through unfair license terms. We commissioned Professor Jenny to make a study of these practices and their impact, to support the Principle of Fair Software Licensing we crafted with Cigref. The Study clearly demonstrates the need for the Principles, and for the DMA to include them within its provisions. This is a significant issue which requires legislation as well as voluntary adoption of our Principles to ensure compliance and a better deal for European businesses and consumers.”

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has signed what is likely to be a lucrative data deal with the UK’s top intelligence services to store and analyse information for the purposes of espionage.

GCHQ, MI5, and MI6 will store information using AWS’ cloud services, according to the Financial Times, which reports that the deal has been made so the UK spy agencies can harness the data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) tools the AWS platform provides.

AWS will also reportedly equip the agencies with tools that enable easier data sharing between overseas field locations and rapid translation of audio recordings.

Other government departments such as the Ministry of Defence will also use the cloud service offering during joint operations, according to the FT‘s report.

GCHQ was leading the calls for a cloud security platform which could be used across the intelligence services, the report added. The deal was signed this year and all data will be stored in the UK, with Amazon’s main e-commerce company having no access or oversight of the data at all.

IT Pro contacted GCHQ and AWS and both declined to comment on the matter.

GCHQ’s ambition to further embed AI into its intelligence practices was highlighted in a 2020 Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) report in which it claimed UK spies would need to use AI in order to stymie modern-day cyber attackers.

The report claimed there were three key areas in which AI would be able to benefit the GCHQ; analysis of intelligence, cyber security operations, and the automation of administrative tasks.

Echoing this claim, panellists including Moonpig’s head of cyber Tash Norris said during a 2021 IT Pro Panel that the best AI applications for cyber security will be in detection and response tasks like SIEM, SOAR, and EDR. The sentiment is echoed in the Rusi report, which stated that AI will never replace strong human judgement. 

Commenting on an October 2021 claim made by the Pentagon’s former chief software officer that China has won the AI battle with the US, Jeremy Fleming, director at GCHQ, said he doesn’t subscribe to the idea, though he added that «China by more or less any measure is doing well in the development of AI capabilities».

Addressing delegates at The Cipher Brief Annual Threat Conference on Monday, Fleming also claimed the UK saw twice the number of ransomware attacks in 2021 compared to 2020. Attacks are proliferating «because it works; it just pays,» he said.

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are stepping aside from their leadership roles of Google’s parent company Alphabet, bringing to an end an unprecedented reign at the helm of one of the most influential companies in history.

The iconic silicon valley duo will remain as board members, shareholders and overall «proud parents» of the companies they founded and led since starting the search engine giant from a California garage in 1998.

Page and Brin said they wanted to simplify the management structure of the tech giant, adding there was no need to have two CEOs and a president of the same company.

Google’s Sundar Pichai, who joined the company in 2004 and was appointed CEO in 2015, will assume the CEO role of both Google and Alphabet.

«I will continue to be very focused on Google and the deep work we’re doing to push the boundaries of computing and build a more helpful Google for everyone,» said Pichai. «At the same time, I’m excited about Alphabet and its long term focus on tackling big challenges through technology.»

«While it has been a tremendous privilege to be deeply involved in the day-to-day management of the company for so long, we believe it’s time to assume the role of proud parents – offering advice and love, but not daily nagging,» said Page and Brin in a joint letter.

Alphabet, the multinational conglomerate holding company which houses Google and a number of other projects it has launched, including DeepMind, was created in 2015 and replaced Google as the publicly-traded company.

Shortly after, Pichai replaced Page as CEO at Google following months of rumours that he would be the next man for the job. Pichai previously held positions at Google such as product chief and head of Android prior to assuming the top job at the company.

Among other notable successes, Pichai’s reign at Google has seen the company invest heavily in green energy. Google Cloud said in 2018 it runs entirely on green energy and that the company has invested billions in building a variety of green datacentre facilities across the world, including locations in Finland and Denmark.

Google has also been embroiled in controversy throughout 2019. Most recently, the EU announced it plans to launch an investigation into the company’s data collection practices. The UK’s competition watchdog also announced it will be investigating Google’s £2 billion acquisition of data analysis firm Looker.

Google Cloud has revealed it will be terminating its Cloud Print service on the 1 January 2021, warning businesses they will need to find an alternative solution.

The move will affect all devices across all operating systems, according to a Google support note, prompting the need for businesses to «execute a migration strategy» over the next year.

The termination comes as the company shifts towards a native approach to its printing services. Chrome OS received CUPS printing in 2017, a native printing management service engrained in Google’s operating system and that will replace Cloud Print after the cut-off date. However, for Windows, Mac, Linux and any other users, alternative solutions will be needed.

The announcement is more likely to hurt small businesses that operate in a single-vendor IT environment. For example, if an SMB operated solely on Microsoft Azure and ran Windows machines only, then having that vendor take away its printing service means it would have to go out and pay for a new service.

This is especially relevant to businesses that equip their workforce with workstations of different operating systems of even operate a BYOD policy. In this scenario, a printing service that can manage all these different devices at once will be necessary and costly.

Larger businesses have time to adapt to the change and even work with other printing vendors to create a bespoke cloud-based printing product for that given business. 

Reaction has been mixed among customers, with many taking to Twitter to voice their concerns.

One user said «Google should consider open sourcing the entire Cloud Print project,» while others said the move was indicative of the modern office’s move towards a paperless office.

«It’s the only way I’ve printed ever since it came out. Can print from Android, make it act as a default printer in windows. Used to be able to do the same on a Mac,» said another user. «Could always just go to the website and print any document you could upload from anywhere.»

Incidentally, IT Pro’s own office relies on Google Cloud Print.

«I think it might just be a case of adding the printer to our print server and working around a way to either send out a handout explaining to users on what to do to add the printer or setting times to physically add it,» our own IT department explained.

Cloud Print joins a growing list of axed Google products in 2019. Dedicated email app Inbox was terminated in June, Hire was ended in August and most notably Google+ was shuttered finally in April 2019 following a series of security errors impacting millions of its users.

It’s not usually part of our remit, but despite it being a gaming-geared announcement, there’s something about the new Google Stadia gizmo that interests us, specifically its infrastructure which raises questions we can’t quite answer yet.

Codenamed Project Stream before its launch, Google’s game streaming service is far from the first to grace the market, but it might be the most well-timed attempt of them all. It aims to bring console-quality games directly to virtually any screen with no need for a physical console.

Games will be controlled by a new Stadia controller which connects directly to the platform via Wi-Fi. Not the screen, not the Chromecast – directly to the game client residing in the cloud.

It’s important to note this isn’t the first time a cloud streaming of this kind has been attempted. OnLive and PlayStation Now, to name but two, promised so much but then crashed and burned after delivering very little.

OnLive ran into money issues where the cost of running its infrastructure far exceeded the income it made. It’s reported that the service cost millions of dollars to run every month but on launch, and for a few weeks after, the company only received single-digit daily income because of its «try before you buy» policy on games.

PlayStation Now is actually still alive and kicking. The premium service hasn’t been adopted nearly as widely as first thought, probably due to a combination of its reported heavy input lag and poor variety of supported games.

So with that, Stadia must overcome some significant challenges to breathe new life into the platform. With edge computing, it theoretically has an advantage over OnLive and being Google, it has already managed to secure a decent selection of launch titles to ensure day-one success.

What caught our eye is the cloud and edge computing aspects of the service’s infrastructure and streaming strategy. OnLive attempted cloud gaming in the past but the existing support infrastructure, which was unfit for purpose, has been the main blockade in developing a system that actually works. The streaming speed and quality were passable as a proof of concept and just about playable with some games, but to launch Stadia eight years after the failure of OnLive, it must do much better.

So many questions

Google has said it will be using a combination of its highly advanced data centres and edge infrastructure to deliver gaming at low latencies, something that, especially in the online multiplayer space, is of vital importance.

Phil Harrison, VP and GM at Google, leading the Stadia project, said that the measurable latency issues seen in Project Stream are «solved and mitigated».

«There are some investments in the datacentre that will create a much higher experience for more people, and there are some fundamental advances in compression algorithms,» he told Eurogamer.

«One important thing to keep in mind is that we are building our infrastructure at the edge. It’s not just in our central, massive datacentres. We’re building infrastructure as close to the end user, the gamer, as possible – so that helps mitigate some of the historical challenges».

The interaction between the datacentre and the edge is unclear, specifically to what extent both will impact the overall processing and transmission of game data. What’s been said so far seems somewhat confusing and at times contradictory. For example, Harrison spoke about microsecond ping speeds for gamers but 20ms edge to datacentre speeds.

Google’s massive number of datacentres, according to Harrison, will be pivotal in delivering the Stadia experience the tech giant has imagined. Harrison said Google’s datacentres offer the theoretically unlimited compute capacity needed for a cloud-based streaming service to thrive. Gaming developments have, in years gone by, been limited because of hardware and people’s reluctance to upgrade for a few years, or until the next console life cycle starts. In the datacentre, CPU and GPU capacity is as powerful as the developer needs it to be to run its game.

Chris Gardner, senior analyst at Forrester is optimistic about the capability of Google’s infrastructure. «The network configuration is somewhat of a mystery, but clearly Google nailed this because benchmarks have shown perceived input latency to be extremely fast,» he tells Cloud Pro. «Google has experience with network optimisation (all the way down to designing its own protocols) so the performance is not a stretch.»

Take the specified hardware announced by Google and put it into one of Google’s many datacentres and you arguably have a recipe for success, he adds.

Trouble in the network

However, the promises around network speeds proved to be a point of contention for us. Firstly, Harrison told the BBC that 4K gaming can be achieved on download speeds of 25mbps; for reference, the average UK household gets just 18.5mbps speeds from its internet connection, far less in rural areas. The VP said Google expects network demands to improve, but it definitely wasn’t a promise.

Although Google seems to be confident in the fact that its back-end equipment is up to the task, it’s likely to face the problem of internet service provider (ISP) throttling – world-class servers or not. Harrison already confirmed that Google already has relationships within the wider industry, but it’s possible the company could run into the same problems that Netflix faced during its expansion where it started paying ISPs to allow faster speeds on the service but instead users were throttled.

It’s a very real possibility that ISPs would throttle bandwidth as popularity grows and network demands are greater. «[Netflix] had to negotiate with the major players to ensure the customer experience wasn’t dreadful,» says Gardner. «I expect the same experience for game streaming providers, although much more so because now it’s not just a bandwidth negotiation, it’s latency as well».

On the topic of latency, Gardner cited this as his biggest concern of the whole project. «What I expect to see is streaming to be initially successful with casual games, platformers and roleplaying games,» he said. «However, multiplayer games demand low latency and low input lag to stay competitive and enjoyable. This is my biggest concern,» he added. «Shooters, MOBAs and other types of super competitive games – I honestly don’t expect gamers to tolerate the latency.»

Competition is just around the corner

There are only three companies in the world right now that are positioned well enough to feasibly deliver on a cloud-based product like this. Google is one of them, AWS and Microsoft are the others. We just wouldn’t expect any of these to pump so much time and money into something the world isn’t ready for yet.

Google’s main competitor in this area is Microsoft, which is working on Project xCloud, its own game streaming service currently in beta. The company behind the Xbox is certainly lagging compared to Google as its product is currently still in the development stage, but it arguably presents the best case to make this idea of game streaming work. Reports from those selected to test the beta version of xCloud also seem to be unanimously positive.

Couple Microsoft’s prowess in the cloud market with its strong presence in the console sector spanning nearly two decades and that provides an impressive backing for what could potentially be a better product compared to Google’s. It’s possible Microsoft could let Google launch Stadia, learn from its inevitable mistakes, and then blow it out of the water with a far superior service.

Regardless of how all of this plays out, it’s difficult to get excited about something that has failed in so many previous attempts and with so little information about the project disclosed – the kind of information that we need to make educated guesses about its viability as a service – we can’t help but look on with scepticism.

Main image credit: Marco Verch