Google primes cloud for enterprise

Eyes IT partners to upsell Apps users.

Google has built the foundations for a channel ecosystem around its cloud compute and hosted software products.

The web giant's global head of enterprise partnerships Rahul Sood named a panel of seven IT services and service providers as founding members of its Cloud Transformation Program.

The partners included CSC, Cloud Sherpas, Cognizant, Opera Solutions, Razorfish, SADA Systems and TempusNova.

They were expected to help enterprises "get the most out of Google's cloud services", including App Engine and Storage for Developers.

"These partners all have deep expertise and a proven track record of success helping businesses make the most of their IT investments, so we appreciate their support," Sood said.

Cloud Sherpas shed further light on the program's aims, noting it was designed to support "a complete transition to the cloud".

"This program may be of particular interest to current Google Apps customers, as bringing additional aspects of business into the cloud provides the flexibility, continuity and streamlined processes needed to make a successful transition to 100 percent web," the company said in a blog post.

CSC said it would "apply its global technology consulting, cloud implementation expertise and solutions organisation to sell and deliver IT solutions based on Google's cloud services."

Razorfish said it would concentrate on helping large enterprise customers "build custom web applications and analytics tools using Google App Engine and Google Prediction API."

Google has had some success in getting enterprise adoption of its Apps suite in Australia. It was used by telco companies including AAPT and BigAir.

In addition, AAPT and Optus offered Apps as a subscription service, albeit mostly to smaller business customers.