It’s sort of amazing how fast the Google(s goog) Cloud Platform has gone from not-really-there to a contender for Amazon(s amzn) Web Services’ public cloud mantle, at least in terms of perception.

This is not to say the gang in Seattle are shaking in their boots, but you can bet they keep an eye on what Google is doing. Going further, I’d wager that AWS is already considering sub-hour payment increments for its base level services, for which it now charges by the hour. (Google, Microsoft Windows Azure,ProfitBricks and CloudSigma already do this.)

The consensus from an unscientific survey of cloud watchers, is that Google is the one company with the engineering wherewithal and cloud focus to create and deliver innovative services on par with what AWS has done and continues to do.

Here are some things Google could do to shake things up for Amazon according…