Data is king these days -- but making sense of all that information can be a challenge. With an eye toward that opportunity, Accenture has launched the Accenture Google Cloud Business Group (AGBG), and the two companies will develop software and services that deliver data-driven insights to customers.
AGBG's launch marks another key milestone for Google Cloud Platform (GCP), which has been lining up global systems integrator and MSP relationships over the past year. Moreover, the search giant unveiled a range of partner specializations during the recent Google Cloud Next 2018 conference in San Francisco.
Many of those Google partners -- including Accenture -- already support Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. Extending to Google's platform reinforces the thesis that major partners will need to support all three of the major public cloud providers.
Accenture, Google: Common Cloud & Analytics Goals
The new Accenture group includes specialists from both companies and will initially focus on developing cross-industry solutions for clients in North America, Europe and Japan, Accenture says. The initial verticals will span retail, consumer packaged goods, and health industries. Kick-off goals include:
- AI and Machine Learning: Build next generation business processes with artificial intelligence and machine learning-based approaches.
- Managed Cloud Services: Modernize enterprise infrastructure by migrating workloads to the cloud and provide managed services tailored for Google Cloud Platform.
- Managed SAP Applications: Bring global scale to clients that run SAP by delivering managed SAP solutions on Google Cloud Platform
- Marketing Insights: Create relevant customer experiences by combining Google Marketing Platform data with other enterprise data sources, helping to find deeper insights and increasing customer engagement
- Expand G Suites: Scale G Suite across the enterprise, reimagining work with the cloud-native productivity service that is secure, smart, and simple.
Accenture says it has approximately 1,000 practitioners trained on Google Cloud technologies and intends to more than double that number in 2019. Not by coincidence, Accenture was recognized as the 2017 Google Cloud Platform Partner of the Year.
Analytics Investments
This isn’t Accenture’s first foray into analytics. The company has been putting money into the space for the last few years. Example moves include:
- In July, the company bought Kogentix, an IT consulting firm specializing in big data analytics and artificial intelligence.
- In November 2017, the firm became a minority investor in Paxata, which specializes in analytics and big data business outcomes for customers.
- And in August 2017, Accenture bought Search Technologies, a content analytics and enterprise search company with nearly 200 big data engineers and search experts.
Still, the company isn't playing favorites in the cloud services world. The company has made deep investments in the AWS sector, and also partnered early with Microsoft (through Avanade and more) to support Windows NT Server, SQL Server, Exchange, Azure and more.
