You are correct; I've edited my comment to (hopefully) make it a little clearer. Google RPCs are fast. The RPC trace depth of many requests is >20 in miliseconds. Google RPCs are free - Nobody budgets for intradatacenter traffic. Google RPCs are reliable - Most teams hold themselves to a SLA of 4 9s, as measured by their customers, and many see >5 as the usual state of affairs.