Niantic has issue scaling the game quickly to more countries. Does not look good for Google Cloud. Even more so as there are ex-Googlers in Niantic in which most people will assume they have better grasp of Google cloud tech. Is it game design make the scaling difficult or is it Google cloud?

Great Info. Add to the list, "Google Maps API" plays an important role too. The map used in Pokemon Go is custom stack on top of regular Google Maps, the place images used inside PokeStop are from Google Maps too.