Itopia is now a Google Cloud workspace-as-a-service (WaaS) partner. The company announced the relationship at this week's Google Cloud Next conference in San Francisco.
The Google Cloud partnership offers mid-market and enterprise users "zero capital expense and the industry's lowest cost of deployment by 50 percent," according to a prepared itopia statement. The company also indicated the partnership allows channel partners to use the itopia WaaS platform to automatically discover an IT ecosystem and migrate full stack Windows environments into Google Cloud.
"Think of itopia cloud workspaces as the next generation of VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure)," Itopia CEO Jonathan Lieberman (pictured) said in a press release. "itopia is uniquely positioned to provide channel partners with the means to securely migrate and manage enterprises in Google Cloud in record time and with unparalleled results and manageability."
A Closer Look at the itopia-Google Cloud Partnership
Lieberman told ChannelE2E that itopia selected Google Cloud after an extensive evaluation of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and other hyper-scale clouds. He pointed out Google Cloud stood out in terms of performance, price and technology.
" the fastest network and lowest latency of any of the providers and charges on a per-minute basis versus the competition that bills per hour, and Google is investing more into its cloud than all of the others combined," Lieberman said.
According to Lieberman, itopia wants to be an important layer in the solution stack for Windows workspace automation, and the Google Cloud partnership will help his company accomplish this goal.
"We recognize from our IT service provider customers that they want control, choices and the ability to customize. So we've responded to that need by building a technology that is an essential layer in WaaS across the entire ecosystem that focuses on IT's needs and does not limit them in any way, especially now with Google Cloud," he noted.
Where Does itopia Go from Here?
In 2016, itopia reported channel sales growth of 160 percent year to year, and Lieberman said the company plans to explore ways to extend its channel reach in 2017 and beyond.
"We will continue our laser-like focus on the channel to maintain our leadership position," Lieberman told ChannelE2E. "In 2017, we will make substantial investments into our channel partners so that the 'cloud' becomes the primary driver of new clients and revenue."
Side note: Itopia claims to be Google Cloud Platform's first WaaS partner, but that distinction may belong to independenceIT, which has run on Google Compute Engine since 2014. Still, the definition here could be a bit tricky. Itopia could be referring to its Google Cloud partner status. Google has changed its partner program names and designations several times in recent years. -Joe Panettieri
