Google Cloud, MongoDB Explain New Partner Efforts
We sat down with Bronwyn Hastings and Alan Chhabra as the companies have extended their joint work.
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Google Cloud and MongoDB are expanding their work together with three main goals in mind: deepening integrations among their products, with artificial intelligence leading those upgrades; accelerating channel startups’ growth with new tools; and increasing collaboration to ensuring an open approach to data.
“It’s a fundamental we believe in — making sure we can manage [data] in an orchestrated and open way,” said Google Cloud’s Bronwyn Hastings.
Expect a lot of work on the BigQuery side, “to help customers build and modernize application-driven analytic workloads,” said MongoDB’s Alan Chhabra.
In fact, he predicts more customers will move their “very mission-critical workloads” to MongoDB’s Atlas platform on Google Cloud because of the incentives they’ll receive to do so.
Let’s get into the integration news first.
In a March 8 blog, Google Cloud corporate VP Kevin Ichhpurani explained the “deeper integrations” this way:
“Open data is a pillar of our work with MongoDB. We are each committed to breaking down barriers within our mutual customers’ data, whether it is through initiatives like the Data Cloud Alliance or the … integrations between MongoDB Atlas and Google’s data cloud.”
Part of that means digging further into making BigQuery user-friendly, requiring less developer effort.
“Our top priority is to make the integration between MongoDB and BigQuery even more seamless, because it provides customers with a holistic analytics solution that can handle their most complex analytics needs and leverage data from any data source,” Ichhpurani wrote.
Channel Futures asked Hastings and Chhabra what that all means for channel partners. In essence, look for more artificial intelligence/machine learning capabilities that will make everything easier.
That will be an interesting area to watch as Google Cloud seeks to catch up to rival Microsoft on the AI front.
Next, we look at the cloud sovereignty initiatives on the horizon.
Cloud sovereignty continues to grow in importance as regulators, especially in the European Union, require data to reside within regional boundaries. As such, Google Cloud and MongoDB plan to engineer more resources that let users build with MongoDB as they have, but with the extra assurance of the ability to ensure local data governance.
Chhabra couldn’t provide an on-the-record timeline of how soon that will happen. However, he said, “I think you’ll see this coming out in EMEA first,” and then in domains including the public sector.
MongoDB supports 32 Google Cloud regions as of March 8.
On the next slide, we dig into the companies’ startup channel news.
Google Cloud and MongoDB are “doubling down” on the startup channel, Chhabra said.
That means new ISVs and SIs, and even MSPs (which the companies view as a hybrid of SI and ISV) have some financial hope in an economy where liquidity is hard to come by. In other words, MongoDB and Google Cloud are spending millions to get more end users on their platforms (we’ll go further into the go-to-market news in a couple of slides).
Let’s start with what’s in store for ISVs, which can look like anything from an AI/ML newcomer to a fintech firm.
“Most companies are ISVs,” Chhabra said. “They’re software companies writing modern software stacks.”
As such, there’s a lot of opportunity for everyone in the value chain.
“I feel like MongoDB and Google Cloud are doing something special and not running away from the problem that many of these startups have,” Chhabra said, referring to current challenges around raising capital. “MongoDB and Google Cloud are committed to go help those startups.”
The startup program Chhabra is championing will give ISVs “a modern data architecture to write an application on … quickly.”
How will Google Cloud and MongoDB do that?
Channel startups working with Google Cloud and MongoDB can receive credits, incentives and access to free services “to really jump-start the way that they are going to be able to scale up, the way they address data,” said Hastings.
The credits can apply to both MongoDB and Google Cloud products. Other initiatives include onboarding support, Ichhpurani wrote in his blog.
Specifically, what’s in store for SIs and MSPs?
Different items in the extended Google Cloud-MongoDB agreement apply to SIs (which can also be MSPs). Depending on the opportunity, they could earn incentives, credits and/or investments from Google Cloud and MongoDB “to help offset the services cost of migration,” Chhabra said. (This is a standard practice among cloud vendors as they seek to lure more end users.)
Hastings agreed, adding, “We’ve built reference architectures that … make it better for SIs to work with our environment. … We’re taking complexity out.”
MongoDB isn’t letting its SIs partners go it alone, either. It’s certifying “hundreds” of SIs each month, training them on the best ways to migrate to the cloud, Chhabra said.
But there’s a big takeaway you’ll want to understand.
The big takeaway is this: “If you’re an SI and you want to help your end customer migrate to the cloud and modernize … Google Cloud and MongoDB in this agreement have millions of dollars of funding incentives.”
That’s the word from MongoDB’s Chhabra. Together, MongoDB and Google Cloud are jointly betting that organizations will be glad they moved to the two firms’ platforms. And so they’re pouring “millions of dollars” into enticing partners to bring more users their way.
“The amount of funding we’ve allocated for this motion is quite large and we’re looking for SIs to go on that journey with us,” Chhabra said.
It’s not just about money, though, said Hastings. It’s also about “resourcing,” or managing sales efforts in the field “so that we have good engagement model to support customers. … It is comprehensive, not just one bucket.”
Ichhpurani agreed, noting that all those capabilities boil down to one reality: “Google Cloud is a partner-first business. Our partners play a critical role in every product area, particularly data, where openness is absolutely critical.”
As such, he wrote, customers must be able to deploy channel partners’ products alongside those from Google Cloud and MongoDB. And the extended partnership reflects that thinking.
The big takeaway is this: “If you’re an SI and you want to help your end customer migrate to the cloud and modernize … Google Cloud and MongoDB in this agreement have millions of dollars of funding incentives.”
That’s the word from MongoDB’s Chhabra. Together, MongoDB and Google Cloud are jointly betting that organizations will be glad they moved to the two firms’ platforms. And so they’re pouring “millions of dollars” into enticing partners to bring more users their way.
“The amount of funding we’ve allocated for this motion is quite large and we’re looking for SIs to go on that journey with us,” Chhabra said.
It’s not just about money, though, said Hastings. It’s also about “resourcing,” or managing sales efforts in the field “so that we have good engagement model to support customers. … It is comprehensive, not just one bucket.”
Ichhpurani agreed, noting that all those capabilities boil down to one reality: “Google Cloud is a partner-first business. Our partners play a critical role in every product area, particularly data, where openness is absolutely critical.”
As such, he wrote, customers must be able to deploy channel partners’ products alongside those from Google Cloud and MongoDB. And the extended partnership reflects that thinking.
Google Cloud and MongoDB have extended their partnership another three years. And they’ve set aside a lot of money for system integrators, independent software vendors and their amalgam, managed service providers.
The world’s third-largest public cloud provider and the database behemoth have worked together since 2018. Now, they’re pumping even more money into attracting new customers; they’re looking to the channel to help them do that.
Kevin Ichhpurani, corporate vice president of global ecosystem and channels at Google Cloud, just published a blog outlining the changes.
“MongoDB and Google Cloud are fundamentally committed to breaking down data silos and ensuring that customers can build using data from any source, in any location and on any platform,” he wrote. “We’re proud of the work we’ve already achieved to power businesses with data capabilities that are the foundation for their digital transformations, and we are committed to deepening this collaboration even further to help businesses of all sizes succeed at every step of their data journeys.”
To learn more about those initiatives, Channel Futures was lucky enough to secure an exclusive joint interview with Google Cloud’s Bronwyn Hastings, head of global ISV partnerships and channel, and MongoDB’s Alan Chhabra, about the news. (Recall that Ichhpurani tapped Hastings early last year to help lead the Google Cloud partner program while remaining responsible for the technology and application partnerships team.)
“We’re very excited,” said Chhabra, executive vice president of worldwide partners at MongoDB.
Embracing Open-Source Data
Back in the day, Google Cloud’s Thomas Kurian and Kevin Ichhpurani ranked among the first cloud leaders to embrace open-source data, Chhabra said.
“We weren’t always on the best footing with other cloud partners so it was a great time for us to engage” five years ago, said Chhabra. “That’s when MongoDB launched its Atlas platform on Google Cloud, and the rest is history. We’ve had great growth in many verticals, done hundreds, if not thousands, of deals on Google Cloud Marketplace. ”
That brings Google Cloud and MongoDB to now, with the three-year extension of their initial agreement (and lest this sound too exclusive, it’s fair to note that MongoDB also works with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure). And while nothing’s changing in terms of the goal – more end users consuming both companies’ technologies – there’s much in store for the channel.
In the slideshow above, we chat with Hastings and Chhabra about what Google Cloud and MongoDB have planned for partners. You’ll particularly want to take note if you’re an indirect channel startup looking for funding in a tough economy. If that’s the case, the news from Google Cloud and MongoDB news could be your ticket.
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