Google Cloud’s Carolee Gearhart: ‘We Are 100% Behind Our Partners’
… fantastic and the customer experience is great.”
Partners, too, may trigger customer surveys, if they want feedback right away.
No Question: It’s a Hybrid, Multicloud World
Cloud channel partners have nothing but opportunity in front of them.
“Cloud-associated markets are growing at rates ranging from 15% to over 40% per year,” said John Dinsdale, a chief analyst at Synergy Research Group. “Cloud is increasingly dominating the IT landscape, benefitting companies throughout the cloud ecosystem.”
Google Cloud knows this. That’s why it’s throwing its weight behind its MSPs, VARs, ISVs, consultants and other partners.
“There’s no question that we’re living in a hybrid and multicloud world,” Gearhart said. “That is only accelerating.”
Customers have to create and manage multiple cloud environments — a demanding task for anyone but especially for organizations that want to spend their time making money, rather than operating technology. That puts partners in a prime position. The ones who run more services on customers’ behalves, and who develop their own unique tweaks on their offerings, will stand out.
“We’re all still living through our pandemic world, unfortunately, but it has brought certain things to the forefront,” Gearhart said. “The folks who are still around are going to survive this. But who’s going to thrive in this? Who is able to take this moment and pivot to new business models? … The folks who look at this as an opportunity … will thrive, not survive.”
More to Come from Google Cloud
Again, Google Cloud may not be the behemoth cloud provider, but it’s not small and it is making headway.
“The acceleration is incredible,” Gearhart said. “When I think about just the first half of 2021 … we were at 300% more deals than in the same period in 2018. The acceleration is very, very high. We had six times as may partners involved in [big] deals in 2021 as we did in 2018.”
The company is securing that partner loyalty because it is dedicated to the channel. Partners agree.
“Google has always signaled that it’s the most flexible cloud, empowering customers to build applications and analyze data across different environments in the most sustainable way,” said Jenn Viau and Brian Suk of Google Cloud-only MSP SADA in an Oct. 18 blog. “SADA is excited to partner with Google Cloud … to solve new business challenges in the cloud.”
MSP Maven Wave made a similar observation. Google Cloud, the Atos-owned company said, has attained some “incredible achievements.”
“We’re so excited to see what the future holds as we ‘solve for what’s next,’” the company wrote, referring to the tagline for Google Next (for which London-headquartered MSP CTS even held watch parties).
For Gearhart, the sentiments are mutual.
“You’re going to continue to see a real, ongoing investment in our go-to-market,” she said. “We are 100% behind our partners.”
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