In an attempt to match its arch-nemesis Amazon, Google has today announced the launch of its very own digital marketplace where it’ll sell cloud apps and services to enterprises, as well as other organizations. This will simplify the discovery and integration process of third-party apps with your cloud services, reducing dependence on unsecured sources.
Google is not shouldering the task to build the cloud app marketplace by itself. The search giant has instead decided to partner with MobileIron, a mobile device security, and management company. This partnership will see Google combine the services from e-commerce platform Orbitera, which it acquired back in 2016, with MobileIron’s expertise in app distribution and security to distribute cloud apps to its customers.
The primary aim of this partnership undertaken by Google is to offer businesses a quicker and simpler method to create an integrated and secure marketplace. They can then utilize the same to streamline the billing, application entitlement or authentication process for their authorized customers.
In the official blog post, Marcin Kurc, Google Cloud’s Head of Commerce talks about their partnership with MobileIron and says:
By combining MobileIron’s security and enterprise mobility management tools with Orbitera, we’re creating one place to deploy, secure, manage and analyze business applications.
This platform is completely flexible and scalable, as per the needs of an organization, and Google is going a step further to make businesses adopt the same. It is offering custom bundles, branding, a single detailed bill for all services such as data, voice and third-party cloud services, along with an analysis of their data usage.
This is Google’s latest attempt to maintain and grow its presence in the cloud space, which is ruled by the likes of Amazon Web Services. The former has recently directed quite a lot of focus towards pushing the boundaries of machine learning (ML) and AI technologies but is not planning to give up its position in the cloud space just yet.
This cloud app marketplace, as per CNBC’s report, is expected to debut in the second half of 2018. It will initially target telecom operators such as AT&T and Deutsche Telecom, so they can sell cloud services to their customers through an intuitive interface that is much safer to use and pay for services on the fly.
