Uber Taking Cloud Service Bids From Google, Amazon And Microsoft – Report

Uber has started a bidding war between public cloud leaders Amazon, Google, Microsoft and IBM as the on-demand taxi service looks to move some of its server infrastructure to the cloud.

This is according to a source speaking to The Information, who said that Uber has already begun testing some cloud services.

The report, seen by The Information, claims that Uber is “vendor-neutral” and could choose different vendors for different regions, depending on locations of data centres and cloud facilities.

For example, in China, Uber could opt for Aliyun, Alibaba’s cloud division.

Expansion

Such a move would mark the first time Uber has outsourced some of its infrastructure, and comes as the company expands its reach and availability across the globe.

Uber would be a prize win for any of Microsoft, IBM, Google, or Amazon, considering the size and global presence of Uber. Amazon with its AWS cloud platform is currently the market leader in public cloud. Google has made refreshed efforts this year under new leadership from Diane Greene to bolster its cloud credentials. Microsoft with its Azure platform is angling for the enterprise, and IBM still holding its hybrid own in the IaaS market after its SoftLayer acquisition in 2013.

Leaked financial documents, seen by The Information in January, pointed to Uber amassing net revenue ready to hit a run rate of $1.5 billion (£1bn) in 2015, with the company holding $4.1 billion (£2.8bn) in cash and cash equivalents as of last June. Gross revenue from bookings hit $2.1 billion (£1.5bn) in Q2 of 2015, the documents claimed.

TechWeekEurope has requested comment from all four of the public cloud providers listed, as well as Uber itself.

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