Google today announced that what has been known as Google for Work has been rebranded as Google Cloud. The new name encompasses many Google apps, platforms and services into one cloud-centric solution for businesses.
Google Cloud spans every layer. It includes all of Google Cloud Platform; our user facing collaboration and productivity applications — now named G Suite; all of our machine learning
tools and APIs, the enterprise maps APIs; and the Android phones, tablets and Chromebooks that access the cloud. All of this, built for the cloud from the get-go.
Moreover, Google Cloud has been engineered in an enterprise appropriate way, with integrated systems that include guarantees at the service level — all components integrated and meeting the SLA for whatever price point the customer chooses.
The change in name and direction of the solution isn’t just about products. It is also the backend support that Google will provide to their customers to go through the digital transformation that Google Cloud can offer. As they put it, “We are in it together”. Customers won’t have to figure it out on their own and that, especially for smaller businesses, can be a huge relief and cost savings.
At the same time, Google has renamed the Google Apps for Work to G Suite. It encompasses all of the same apps, along with Google+, to give users real-time collaboration functionality and a suite of apps to get tasks completed. Along with the name change, some of the apps have new functionality specifically aimed at aiding in that collaboration and productivity.
This move by Google is aggressive but timed well. The entire cloud-based computing, SaaS and PaaS market is growing at an exponential rate and the company clearly is well positioned to take advantage of it. Add in the “secret sauce” of Google’s Artificial Intelligence and you have a solution that is in many ways years ahead of what Apple or Microsoft can offer today.
You can read more about Google Cloud here
