10 Things To Know About the Google Cloud Partner Ecosystem
Douglas Pollei
Google NorthAm GSI Alliances Team | Deal Pursuits | Industry Solutions | Enterprise Engagements | GTM Strategies | Alliance Leadership | Partner Development
In 2020, IDC predicted that partner revenue from Google Cloud-related opportunities would more than triple by 2025, representing a big opportunity for the partner ecosystem in building out their Google Cloud practices. Google Cloud partners are now starting to experience the growth predicted.
So what has happened in the last 6 months in Google’s Partner Ecosystem? Why are enterprises and system integrators investing in Google Cloud service capabilities? Who are the major partners? What are analysts and industry advisors saying? Why are Google’s cloud leaders excited about the future?
What are the 10 things to know about the Google Cloud partner ecosystem?
Below is a summary of recent announcements, articles, and associated links to check out.
(1) Google Cloud Partners Saw a Significant Rise in 2023 - Some Partners Experienced a 500% Increase in Deal Volume
The Google partner ecosystem is experiencing a large amount of growth, especially for GSIs (Global Systems Integrators). According to Google, many GSIs are seeing up to 75% annual growth in their dedicated Google business practices. Additionally, some GSIs are experiencing a 500% increase in annual deal volume. Many GSIs also report that their Google Cloud unit is the fastest-growing cloud business within their company due to infrastructure modernization, AI, security, and data analytics capabilities.
(2) Google Cloud has a $32B Annual Run Rate, the Largest in its History
Google Cloud revenue saw a big uptick in 2023. Q1 sales for Google Cloud were up 28% YoY from Q1 2022. Similarly, Google Cloud’s $8 billion in Q2 2023 sales increased 28% from $6.28 billion in Q2 2022.
As for the total market, the worldwide infrastructure as a service (IaaS) area grew 29.7% in 2022 to $120.3 billion, up from $92.8 billion in 2021 (according to Gartner in the 2023 Worldwide Iaas Public Cloud Services Market Share study). From the study, Google reported a 41% growth increase for 2021-2022 vs 36% and 35% from its largest competitors. Google Cloud's growth performance during the period was the highest for all IaaS public cloud service providers. Google is growing on average 1.5x faster than its competitors. The increased investment by Google in country-specific cloud Infrastructure as well as expanded partner sales/marketing programs helped increase its partner growth, customer base, and overall cloud revenue.
(3) AI is a Key Fuel for Google Cloud Growth and Partner Momentum - Customers Recognize Google as the Brand for AI Innovation
Gen AI dominates the enterprise digital transformation conversation and Google with its numerous AI offerings and brand recognition for innovation is well-positioned to help partners stay ahead of the curve on new opportunities. Three recent quotes from Google executives Thomas Kurian , Adaire Fox-Martin , and Stephen Orban help explain the AI momentum for Google Cloud.
“Over 50% of all funded AI companies are our customers on Google Cloud and over 70% of AI unicorns use Google Cloud. In other words, those that know how to do AI, understand our differentiators. As generative AI came along, we’ve evolved our infrastructure portfolio. Remember, Google has been building large scale infrastructure for AI for over ten years. So, we have over a ten-year head start on any competitor.” Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud, September 7, 2023 at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference.
“We have nurtured these partnerships around AI for years, alongside others with SaaS providers, infrastructure and platform partners, data providers, systems integrators, and leading consultancies. What this all means is that together with our partners we have primed the market for mass adoption of generative AI, and there has never been a better time than now for organizations to get started and to accelerate their AI journeys.” Adaire Fox-Martin President (Google Cloud Go-to- Market)
“GenAI has overnight become a CEO- and boardroom-level conversation, where cloud migrations sometimes are traditionally a CIO-level agenda. So overnight, we’ve seen the demand from customers from very high up in the organization. And we’re in a very fortunate position where a lot of customers have come to trust and recognize Google as a brand for artificial intelligence.” Stephen Orban (Google Cloud VP, Migrations, ISVs, and Marketplace)
Orban also outlined in a recent article 7 Gen AI partnerships and ways partners are leveraging Google Cloud AI services including integration with BigQuery, Vertex AI, and PaLM 2.
(4) GSI Partners are Making Big Investments into their Google Cloud Practices (Centers of Excellence, Sales Enablement, Delivery, and Marketing)
Google is focused on partners to deliver the large majority of professional services on enterprise engagements versus trying to expand their own professional services offerings. The trust in partners to deliver large transformation opportunities has enabled GSIs to confidently invest and expand their dedicated Google business units, especially on certification and training.
“In recent months our global systems integrator (GSI) partners have launched dedicated practices focused on implementing Google Cloud’s gen AI, with plans to collectively train more than 150,000 experts on our technology. GSIs will more than triple their overall professional services capacity for Google Cloud customers by 2025.” Kevin Ichhpurani Corporate VP, Global Partner Ecosystem & Channels
Key Partners in the Google Partner Ecosystem:
Some of the larger partners making increased investments in their dedicated Google Business Group include Deloitte, HCL, TCS, Accenture AGBG, and Cognizant. Capgemini announced their Global Google Cloud Gen AI Center of Excellence in May. HCL announced it will train up to 18,000 technology and consulting professionals on Google Cloud.
(5) Partners Are Starting to Specialize More by Industry and Create Unique IP Solutions for their Customers on Google Cloud
Google offers industry solutions for key industries including financial services, banking, insurance, retail, manufacturing, automotive, energy, healthcare & life sciences, telecommunications, and media & entertainment. More partners now are starting to create specialized industry solution offerings with unique IP in the Google Solutions Center as well as obtain industry expertise status. Accenture has more than 15 tailor-made industry solutions built on Google Cloud to enable clients on their transformation journey.
The following are examples of new industry clients recently launched on Google Cloud: Hackensack Meridian Health, Alaska Airlines, Keurig Dr. Pepper, and CoreLogic.
(6) Google Next 23 Focused Heavily on Partner AI Enablement and New Programs
At Google Cloud Next 23 in August, Google rallied consultancies, global systems integrators, and other service provider partners to help build partner programs that assist customers in effectively deploying generative AI in the enterprise.
For a good overview of Next 23, Adaire Fox-Martin, President for Google Cloud Go-to-Market, shares her highlights from this year's conference in San Francisco, the first in-person Next in four years.
(7) Google Cloud Recently Announced its Top Partner Awards by Geography, Sales, Services, Industry Solutions, and More.
2023 Global Award Winners: HCLTech - Expansion, HCLTech - Social Impact, Accenture - Services, SADA, An Insight company - Sales, Deloitte - Public Sector, Tata Consultancy Services - Talent Development, Capgemini - Industry Solution Services.
(8) Analysts are Taking Notice of Google Cloud Partner Growth
ISG (Information Services Group) : Global GSI Growth is Steadily Increasing Year Over Year - Matching the Growth of Google Partners. U.S. Firms Embrace Google Cloud to Expand Data Strategies
ISG’s Q2 2023 Quarterly Index report headed up by Stanton Jones indicated that the Global Managed Services (GSIs) area hit a new quarterly high of $10B, up 6% from the prior year. The YoY growth is good news for GSIs looking to expand with partners. Also in Q2, ISG recorded 10 mega-deals of $100M+ and 703 managed services contracts, up 6% YoY. IT Outsourcing (ITO) rose 19% fueled by Application Development & Maintenance (ADM) services but demand for BPO was down 24%.
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In June, ISG also released a new Google Cloud Partner Ecosystem report (led by Jan Erik Aase ) that reviewed partner leaders in 5 categories: Implementation & Integration Services, Analytics & Machine Learning, Managed Services, SAP, and Workspace Services. "GCP offers a powerful and versatile set of solutions that cover a wide range of business requirements. It also provides industry-leading security, compliance and support offerings to ensure enterprises’ data and applications are protected and available."
IDC : 2023 Report on Google GSI Partners - GSIs are Seeing an Increase in Large Enterprise Deals, Deal Volume, and Associated Service Contracts
“GSIs also shared insights suggesting positive trends about the mix of business stemming from their Google Cloud work. For example, deal sizes have traditionally varied depending on the level of commitment and technology engagement with the customer, but there has been a major shift from mid-size deals to larger, cross-enterprise deals, and a significant percentage of these deals are now in the 40-60M USD range, which highlights a step change in large-scale customer engagement for both Google Cloud technology and with GSI-related services to implement it. To further this point, over the past three years GCP’s annual deal volume has grown nearly 500 percent, with large deals over 250 million growing more than 300 percent. As the deals increase in size and complexity, they also tend to be longer-term commitments ranging from 2-5 years. “ IDC 2023 Study Google Cloud: Empowering Global System Integrators for Joint Success - Steve White - Program Vice President, Channels and Alliances, IDC
Forrester : Google is Expanding its Activity with GSI Partners
"They're (Google) definitely leaning in a little bit harder than they have in the past. There is definitely a stronger recognition that their partnerships with the service providers, particularly the global service providers and consulting organizations, is really the only way that they're going to gain the biggest stickiness. Michele Goetz Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research from TechTarget. Also, read Forrester’s full 2020 TEI study - The Google Cloud Business Opportunity for Partners
(9) Google Recently Turned 25. Google’s Partner Program Has Optimized Over Time for Partner Success
Related to Google turning 25 in September, Google CEO Sundar Pichai indicated:
"It’s an enormous privilege to reach this milestone — and we haven’t done it alone. We may be a technology company, but Google is what it is today because of people: Our employees, our partners, and most importantly, all the people who use our products."
Google's Partner Program has also made advances over the past few years, with increased investments and optimizing for partner growth. Coinciding with new Google Cloud leadership in 2019, Google implemented the Google Cloud Partner Advantage program helping consolidate and simplify multiple programs. In 2022 Google formed the "Voice of the Partner" team to help identify opportunities and bring partners into longer-term, high-value deals.
(10) Google Partner Leaders Are Excited for the Future
The following three quotes from Kevin Ichhpurani, Jim Anderson , and Chris Voss show the recent comments from Google Cloud Partner Leaders on the future partner ecosystem.
“My biggest message to [Google Cloud partners] is: We are the future and to invest ahead of the curve. The most important thing is if you want to capture the opportunity is to invest ahead of the curve.”
Kevin Ichhpurani (Google Cloud Corporate VP, Global Partner Ecosystem & Channels) from CRN
"Most [Google Cloud partners], are investing in generative AI and Google technology in some format. The ecosystem taps the technology to address challenges such as improving customer experience and optimizing supply chains."
Jim Anderson , VP of NA Partner Ecosystem and Channels from TechTarget
Our [Google Cloud partners] have the capability, relationships, and experience to think about all the amazing use cases that will be enabled by GenAI. We understand from the very beginning that partnerships are a critical piece [to GenAI and its application to the enterprise space]
Chris Voss , Director of North American Services Partnerships from Mastering Partner Success
“Big thanks to our customers and partners for continuing to trust us with their cloud needs.”
Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud
Conclusion: It's the right time and the right place to be partnering with Google.
References and Additional Reading:
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1yDouglas Pollei, well summarized article and excitement.
Contact Center Operations Leader at Accenture Federal Services
1yWell done Doug
Senior IT Executive | Cloud Innovation | Digital Transformation | Product Owner | AI/ML Strategist & Software Engineering | Author |
1yExcellent article.