It’s that time of year! We at Silverlinings are running down the top 5 cloud turkeys for Thanksgiving.
These are the companies, projects, services and even clouds that have been hyped by big names in the industry, yet have fallen ignominiously on their faces. In so doing, they’ve earned the derisive distinction of “turkey.”
So, who and what made the list? Let’s have a look.
5. Google’s Stadia cloud gaming service
Google launched its Stadia cloud gaming service with over-the-top fanfare in November 2019, only to kick off 2023 by unceremoniously shutting it down.
No surprise, right? It’s Google. Launching and then closing promising products at the drop of a hat is what they do.
Still, Google apparently spent millions on getting Stadia up and running, and then pulled the plug within three years. That’s bad, even for them.
4. Rakuten Symphony
One of the most dramatic departures of 2023 was that of Tarek Amin leaving Rakuten. The CEO of both Rakuten Mobile and Rakuten Symphony – and the unofficial face of the open RAN movement – left the company suddenly left the company in August, claiming family reasons.
In October, he fetched up as the CEO of Saudi Arabian oil and gas company’s Aramaco digital arm.
Rakuten Symphony also lost its North America CEO shortly after Amin's exit. Makes you wonder what exactly is going on at the company to spark two big moves.
3. AWS, Microsoft, Google Cloud layoffs
Amazon, Microsoft and Google made plenty of job cuts in 2023, leaving the companies with egg on their faces after a long period of overhiring during the pandemic boom. Unfortunately, tens of thousands of workers – including those in the companies’ respective cloud divisions – felt the burn.
Of particular interest for cloud workers were the 9,000 job cuts announced by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy in March. These layoffs, which were finalized late in April, took place in the AWS cloud and HR departments. They came after 18,000 Amazon job cuts that were announced in January.
Google, meanwhile, cut 12,000 roles in January, while Microsoft slashed 10,000 the same month.
2. Broadcom-VMware deal
The most drawn-out M&A story of this year continues! Broadcom has been trying to close a $61 billion acquisition of cloud maven VMware for over a year, but is still awaiting Chinese regulatory approval.
This deal has to close by November 26 or else Broadcom will be slapped with some serious financial penalties. At this point, if the deal does happen it’ll be a Thanksgiving miracle!
1. OpenAI
We’re not quite sure how the company behind ChatGPT fumbled the ball with seemingly everything going for it this year, but OpenAI last week erupted into what has become a flaming dumpster fire.
In a surprise move, the company’s Board ousted co-founder and CEO Sam Altman and announced the semi-departure of fellow co-founder Greg Brockman. By Monday, both execs had been scooped up by prominent OpenAI partner, Microsoft.
OpenAI, meanwhile, was doing a demented CEO dance which resulted in the appointment of several different interim heads over the course of the weekend. At one point, former Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear was in the driver’s seat.
Quicker than you could say, "pass the stuffing," Altman was back at the helm and the board was dismissed.
We can’t say where the company will go from here, but we can’t imagine that such a messy debacle will exactly inspire confidence – especially given the doubts that already exist about AI itself.
Ed. Note: This story was updated on Nov. 28, 2023, to reflect the most recent happenings at OpenAI.
Want to discuss these turkeys and more? You aren’t alone! Meet us in Sonoma, Calif., from Dec. 6-7 for our Cloud Executive Summit. Use the code LIZ50 to get 50% off your pass.