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Google has increased the number of managed service providers (MSPs) it is partnering with to help enterprises migrate and manage workloads on its cloud infrastructure.
Among its new partners are Accenture, Pythian, RightScale, SADA Systems, and Taos. The new partnerships bring to 12 the total number of MSPs that Google is partnering with to offer cloud support services to enterprise customers of its cloud platform. The new partners are joining current members Cascadeo, Claranet, Cloudreach, DoiTInternational, Go Reply, Rackspace and Sutherland.
The MSPs will offer a range of services from operating customer workloads on Google infrastructure to hands-on support in a variety of areas said Zoltan Szabadi, head of MSP Partners at Google Cloud in a blog Dec. 11. The services will be available to both large and small adopters of Google’s cloud services.
“With their staff of dedicated technical experts, MSPs can tackle high-touch projects, covering engagement to migration and execution, to post-planning and ongoing optimization,” he said.
At a minimum, all of Google’s MSP partners will provide consulting and assessment services. In addition, Google will help organizations implement cloud workloads as well as monitor and optimize them. All of the partners will also offer round the clock multi-tiered support services using Google certified support staff and offer formal service level assurances to customers.
The partners that Google has selected are all experts in the company’s range of cloud technologies and services, according to Szabadi. They have agreed to commit dedicated engineering resources to support Google cloud customers and to participate in continuous training around Google’s cloud technologies going forward.
Over the next few months Google will add more vendors to its partner network as part of a planned continuing expansion of the program.
As one of the fastest growing cloud providers Google has been investing a lot in making its services more enterprise ready. In November 2015, Google appointed Diane Greene, founder and former CEO of VMware, as the head of its enterprise cloud business. Since then the company has been investing heavily in building out data centers and staff to support its cloud services business. In the third quarter of this year for instance, a majority of the nearly 3,000 employees that Google added to its payroll were for its cloud group.
Continuing a trend from recent quarters, revenues from Google’s cloud business grew again in the last quarter as well and accounted for a bulk of the $3.4 billion in revenues that Google’s so-called other business—which include hardware and Android apps—generated.
In announcing the results, Google CEO Sundar Pichai attributed the growth in the company’s cloud business to enterprise interest in its data analytics capabilities and technologies such as its Kubernetes container cluster management technology. Many organizations see Google as a good fit for cloud and for hybrid cloud environments, Pichai had claimed.
Despite the progress Google still lags considerably behind Amazon in terms of cloud market share both domestically and on a worldwide basis. Market research firm Synergy currently pegs Google at fourth spot in the cloud market behind Amazon, Microsoft and IBM.