Cloud Roundup: Google Cloud-Dun & Bradstreet, Ingram Micro, IBM, Oracle, More
This cloud computing news roundup also features announcements from three MSPs.
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Global consultancy Dun & Bradstreet has signed a 10-year contract with Google Cloud. The dollar amount of the deal, announced on Feb. 16, is not public.
Google Cloud will help Dun & Bradstreet pursue various digital transformation projects for more efficiency. The companies also will create services that will benefit organizations.
“Today’s announcement strengthens the already strong ties between our companies,” said Anthony Jabbour, Dun & Bradstreet CEO. “Innovation thrives in collaborative environments and we are proud to work with the team at Google Cloud to marshal the best of our data and technologies to push the boundaries of innovation and unlock opportunities to help our clients and stakeholders win in this fast-paced market.”
Thomas Kurian, Google Cloud’s CEO, said the collaboration “will bring new opportunities to our mutual customers.” To that point, Google Cloud will combine its analytics, artificial intelligence and machine-learning technologies with Dun & Bradstreet’s business data capabilities.
“Through this collaboration with Dun & Bradstreet, we are helping companies of all sizes make better decisions through data-driven insights,” Kurian said.
Google Cloud and Dun & Bradstreet first will tackle better ways to manage supply chain risks. Supply chain problems have worsened throughout COVID-19 and are compounded by regional hurdles like the ongoing protests at the Canada border.
To address that, Dun & Bradstreet will integrate its supply chain data with Google Cloud’s Supply Chain Twin platform. That will add visibility for end users and uncover “hidden risks,” the companies said.
The companies also will work together on new approaches to analytics and business intelligence. Further, they’ll explore go-to-market strategies.
Google Cloud didn’t immediately respond to Channel Futures’ inquiry about whether the Dun & Bradstreet deal featured any channel partner involvement. Google Cloud has been vocal of late about bringing together its direct and indirect sales teams, with a heavy emphasis on the channel.
Distributor Ingram Micro Cloud said this week it now offers Google Cloud under its infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) portfolio. The addition applies to Ingram Micro Cloud’s resellers in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Canada.
“Ingram Micro Cloud working alongside GCP brings important opportunities to our channel partners by allowing us to support their efforts at scale and meet the business needs of their customers,” said Tim FitzGerald, vice president, global IaaS cloud channel at Ingram Micro. “We’re excited for this distribution alliance.”
The agreement represents an expansion of Ingram Micro Cloud’s relationship with Google Cloud. Ingram Micro Cloud said the deal gives partners “new opportunities” to help customers while strengthening their IaaS practices.
Softchoice has landed the Managed Services Provider (MSP) designation in the Google Cloud Partner Advantage Program.
The Toronto-based MSP already held Premier Partner status with Google Cloud. It achieved the MSP label after intense evaluation. That process included a third-party capabilities assessment, demonstration of go-to-market work with Google Cloud and customer testimonials.
“Softchoice’s Google Cloud MSPs designation validates Softchoice’s expertise and commitment to helping organizations drive some of their most important transformation initiatives with Google Cloud,” said Baris Eris, global program lead, managed service providers at Google Cloud.
IBM has launched new capabilities for modernizing applications across hybrid cloud environments.
Application modernization is a big deal. Thousands of organizations throughout the world still rely on decades-old programs that run locally and on-premises. But in a world of remote and hybrid work, as well as ongoing digital transformation, they need to bring these expensive platforms — that they are often locked into — into the cloud era.
One way IBM intends to enable this is by delivering IBM Z as a service on IBM Cloud. This will support development and testing environments, as well as tools for developing hybrid apps. The capability will be available in the second half of the year.
“IBM recognizes that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to modernization,” said Tarun Chopra, vice president of IBM Z Hybrid Cloud. “By leveraging both IBM Z and IBM Cloud, clients can benefit from a hybrid cloud approach that allows them to capitalize on the innovations, technical advancements, security andresiliency of each platform.”
IBM also will make the IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Stack generally available on March 15.
Ensono has earned the SAP on Microsoft Azure advanced specialization.
Similar to Softchoice’s announcement with Google Cloud, Ensono’s news means the MSP has proven its knowledge, experience and success bringing legacy SAP solutions to the cloud — Azure, in particular.
Microsoft channel chief Rodney Clark praised Ensono for the milestone.
“The SAP on Microsoft Azure advanced specialization highlights the partners who can be viewed as most capable when it comes to migrating enterprise SAP applications over to Azure. Ensono clearly demonstrated that they have both the skills and the experience to offer clients a comprehensive and professional SAP to cloud managed service.”
Ensono is an Azure Expert MSP, Microsoft Gold Partner and SAP-certified provider.
MSP Thirdera this week unveiled its ServiceNow Order Management for Telecommunications portal.
Telcos already can get the plug-in in the ServiceNow store. Now, though, resellers and other partners using the Now Platform may take advantage of it. The order management function automates the intake and validation of telecom equipment orders from end users and channel partners. It also ensures consistency between a telecom’s order management system and its product catalog
“Order management shouldn’t be a major cause for concern for telecoms in 2022,” said Jason Wojahn, CEO of Thirdera. “We’ve helped them unlock the power of the cloud and deliver exceptional service and experiences to their clients.”
The U.S. Department of Defense has given Oracle Cloud Infrastructure the thumbs-up to host top secret information.
Oracle will start processing some of the Air Force’s most sensitive data as a result. It’ll do so via its Oracle National Security Regions (ONSR). These are infrastructure instances isolated from the internet and connected only to government networks that meet certain security classifications.
The Air Force already uses various Oracle Cloud Infrastructure services.
Oracle expects to gain more Authority to Operate approvals to serve other branches of the U.S. military, too. For now, this latest foothold pits Oracle closer to competing against hyperscalers Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure at the highly classified government level.
“Oracle has long provided high performance, high availability and open computing to the DoD and intelligence community to securely run their most demanding, mission-critical classified workloads,” said Glen Dodson, senior vice president of Oracle’s national security group. “Oracle’s broad data management services and analytics, including built-in AI, are immensely valuable additions to the DoD’s multicloud strategy.”
The U.S. Department of Defense has given Oracle Cloud Infrastructure the thumbs-up to host top secret information.
Oracle will start processing some of the Air Force’s most sensitive data as a result. It’ll do so via its Oracle National Security Regions (ONSR). These are infrastructure instances isolated from the internet and connected only to government networks that meet certain security classifications.
The Air Force already uses various Oracle Cloud Infrastructure services.
Oracle expects to gain more Authority to Operate approvals to serve other branches of the U.S. military, too. For now, this latest foothold pits Oracle closer to competing against hyperscalers Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure at the highly classified government level.
“Oracle has long provided high performance, high availability and open computing to the DoD and intelligence community to securely run their most demanding, mission-critical classified workloads,” said Glen Dodson, senior vice president of Oracle’s national security group. “Oracle’s broad data management services and analytics, including built-in AI, are immensely valuable additions to the DoD’s multicloud strategy.”
Only halfway through the week, the cloud computing sector is exploding with news. For starters, Google Cloud has come out swinging with an avalanche of announcements. Look for deals with consultancy Dun & Bradstreet, Ingram Micro Cloud and a milestone achievement with managed service provider Softchoice.
All of those tidbits underscore that Google Cloud, still the world’s third-largest public cloud provider, is making good on its goals to gain market share against Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. It might even make a profit (the company to date remains unprofitable and executives seem less inclined to worry about that than they are to act on vision.)
Google Cloud has been making much of its headway through its indirect channel relationships. The company has appointed a new channel chief, Kevin Ichhpurani, to guide that strategy. It’s also consolidating its direct and indirect sales into one organization. (Recall that Carolee Gearhart has left the vendor after a little more than three years.) In fact, we have a Q&A forthcoming with Jim Anderson, who now leads Google Cloud’s direct sales teams. We’ll have that for you soon.
In the meantime, though, IBM has some application modernization intentions via its IBM Z as a service on IBM Cloud. This concerns the hybrid cloud. Next, MSP Ensono has achieved a cloud milestone with Microsoft Azure. And fellow MSP Thirdera, which specializes in ServiceNow, has launched a platform partners can use. Finally, Oracle Cloud has secured – no pun intended – U.S. Department of Defense approval to process sensitive Air Force data. That’s significant, given that few cloud providers hold such high-level permissions.
Finally, we already covered Akamai Technologies’ pending acquisition of Linode — read that here. As a quick recap, though, Akamai is buying the independent cloud computing provider for $900 million in cash. We’re still working to find out what this deal means for the indirect channel, since Akamai targets large enterprises and Linode aims more at smaller businesses, often through managed service providers.
Check out all the cloud computing news you need to know, in the slideshow above.
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