Talk has been circulating recently about Google building an Infrastructure as a Service cloud computing platform in the near future. Now, GigaOM is reporting that it's possible the Web giant could be launching this service as soon as next week during the Google I/O developers' conference in San Francisco.
The tech news site is also saying that several people familiar with Google's plans have confirmed that Google will offer its current App Engine and storage with its forthcoming service.
The Web giant's platform will most likely compete with Amazon's EC2 cloud service, but it could also be up against a similar infrastructure as a service (IaaS, in industry jargon) cloud computing offering that Microsoft is supposedly building.
Both Microsoft and Google already have software suites in the cloud, Microsoft with Office 365 and Google with Apps for Business; moving into infrastructure as a service territory could be a financial boost for both companies.
According to GigaOM, Google's main target is actually Microsoft and its developer community. "The enterprise developer community is also one of Microsoft's biggest strengths, and Google wants to go after them," GigaOM writes. "In order to lure these enterprise developers, the company has focused heavily on making it easier to write, deploy and manage applications on its platform."
When CNET contacted Google for comment, its spokesperson said the company is not commenting on rumor or speculation.