YouTube infrastructure is shifting from private datacenters to Google Cloud

Google is moving parts of popular video service YouTube from private datacenters to its own cloud computing service, Google Cloud.

Announced by Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, the move is being touted as an attempt to show off the resilience of the company's public cloud platform. By partly hosting the second most popular website on the internet, Google Cloud can show it deserves a seat at the table with main rivals Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

“Part of evolving the cloud is having our own services use it more and more, and they are,” Kurian told CNBC in an interview.

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He added that the Google Workspace suite of productivity apps, along with the Waze navigation app and DeepMind artificial intelligence research group, also rely on Google’s cloud infrastructure.

Statement of intent

Notably, both Microsoft and Amazon have in the past moved their popular online properties onto their respective cloud platforms. However, none of them can match YouTube in terms of scale of operation.

The cloud isn’t Google’s strongest suit, as compared to its rivals, particularly AWS. While AWS is one of Amazon’s key sources of revenue, Google’s cloud division still tugs on its profits margins.

For instance, in Q1 2021, AWS clocked 32% year-on-year growth with revenues of $13.50 billion. On the other hand, Google Cloud took in $4 billion, but reported an operating loss of $974 million in the same period.

The move to migrate parts of the most popular video sharing platform to Google Cloud could provide the impetus the service needs.