Dive Brief:
- Google and Salesforce are working more closely together, with Google Cloud as one of Salesforce's preferred clouds, according to a company announcement on Monday. Google will in turn use Salesforce's software for its own sales management. Salesforce already uses AWS and the companies will continue to work together.
- The new partnership will "connect" Salesforce's customers with Google's Analytics 360 and G Suite. Users will be able to access data in the Salesforce Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud and in Google Analytics 360 where marketers can customize audiences in 360 and move them to Marketing Cloud.
- The symbiotic relationship will grant Salesforce access to Google Cloud's international base and Google will have access to Salesforce's enterprise hold. The companies have prior relations from a deal in 2008 that brought Salesforce into Google Apps, reports VentureBeat.
Dive Insight:
Salesforce taking up Google and vice versa is a feather in both of the companies' caps. Google, currently the third largest cloud provider, is intruding on AWS territory.
Alphabet's Q3 year-over-year growth in a segment including the cloud was up 40% year-over-year. AWS also continues to have strongly yearly growth, however its market share has shrunk slighty as other cloud vendors have matured. The driving force in asserting cloud dominance will be in the partnerships these cloud providers can foster.
The cloud market is worth an estimated $12 billion where SaaS is losing momentum to PaaS and IaaS, a testament to the dependent nature companies have on hybrid-cloud approaches and storage.
Even partnerships may not be enough to stand out from the competition. Vendors will continue to emphasize capabilities and offerings in the cloud. For example, AWS differentiated itself from Google and Microsoft when it announced its per second billing option compared to their per minute billing.
