This cloud computing news roundup also features announcements from three MSPs.
Just in the middle of the week, the cloud computing sector exploded in the news. For starters, Google Cloud came out with avalanches of announcements. Find deals on consultancy Dun & Bradstreet, Ingram Micro Cloud and a milestone success with managed service provider Softchoice.
All of that news underscores that Google Cloud, still the third largest public cloud provider in the world, is doing well in its goals of gaining market share against Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. It can even be profitable (the company so far remains unprofitable and executives seem less concerned about that than they acted on perspective.)
Google Cloud does a large part of this through indirect relationships with its channel. The company has appointed a new channel chief, Kevin Ichhpurani, to guide that strategy. It also combines its direct and indirect sales into one organization. (Remember that Carolee Gearhart left the vendor after more than three years.) In fact, we have an upcoming Q&A with Jim Anderson, who now heads Google Cloud’s direct sales teams. We’re close to that for you.
Meanwhile, however, IBM has some goal in modernizing the application through its IBM Z as an IBM Cloud service. This has to do with the hybrid cloud. Next, MSP Ensono achieved a cloud milestone in Microsoft Azure. And fellow MSP Thirdera, which specializes in ServiceNow, has launched a platform available to partners. Finally, Oracle Cloud has secured-no pun intended-U.S. Department of Defense approval to process sensitive Air Force data. That’s important, because very few cloud providers have such high -level permissions.
Finally, we’ve covered Akamai Technologies ’pending acquisition of Linode – read that here. As a quick recap, however, Akamai bought the independent cloud computing provider for $ 900 million in cash. We’re still working to figure out what this deal means for the indirect channel, as Akamai targets large businesses and Linode is more aimed at smaller businesses, usually through managed service providers.
See all the cloud computing news you need to know, at slideshow above.