Google eyes 'multi-cloud' approach with Orbitera acquisition

Google in a bet to strengthen its cloud platform and offerings, has announced the acquisition of West Hollywood, California-based cloud marketplace, Orbitera that helps software vendors and service providers, sell and distribute cloud-based solutions and services. The buyout will potentially aid and improve the support of software vendors on Google Cloud Platform and reinforce Google’s support for the multi-cloud environment, in fighting the likes of Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The legal terms of the deal and purchase price of the venture hasn’t surfaced yet. However, Techcrunch reports it to be around $100 million. According to a Google blog post, With over 60,000 enterprise stacks, Orbitera automates many of the processes associated with billing, packaging and pricing optimization for leading businesses and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), supporting customers running in the cloud. Reportedly, its Cloud Commerce Platform enables multi-channel software delivery and commerce that makes it easier for enterprise and SMB customers to buy, deploy, and manage software in the cloud. The platform claims to impact the cloud lifecycle and help providers grow revenue by packaging applications to be cloud ready and accelerate direct sales in the cloud. It also engages with customers to discover and use cloud ready solutions, says Orbitera. Nan Boden, Head of Global Technology Partners, Google, believes that both enterprise customers and ISVs wants to be able to use more than one cloud provider. And find a way to conduct product trials and proofs of concept before building a full production deployment, all using their trusted SIs (System Integrators), resellers and normal sales cycles. He said: “The current model for the deploying, managing and billing of cloud-based software does not easily fit the way today’s modern enterprises operate.”

“(While) At Google, we partner closely with our enterprise customers and software providers to ensure their transition to the cloud is as simple and seamless as possible, Orbitera has built a strong ecosystem of enterprise software vendors delivering software to multiple clouds. With this acquisition, we’re providing customers with more choice and flexibility when it comes to running their cloud environment,” Boden added.

Google although has decided not to interfere in Orbitera’s independent and standalone operations and stated, “Looking to the future, we’re committed to maintaining Orbitera’s neutrality as a platform supporting multi-cloud commerce. We look forward to helping the modern enterprise thrive in a multi-cloud world.” In another company blog, Marcin Kurc, CEO, Orbitera, commented:

“The Google Cloud Platform team shares our vision for seamless purchase and deployment of IT services across heterogeneous cloud infrastructure. It quickly became clear to us that becoming a part of Google would lead to the best possible outcome for our customers. We will continue to deliver the products and services our customers rely on with the added scale that Google provides.”

Orbitera that came into being in the year 2011, offers cloud commerce and features like Packaging and Provisioning, Cloud Billing and Margin Optimization Software, Cloud Marketplace Platform and Trials and Lead Management. It also boats of a client roster including Oracle, Avnet and Adobe in today’s market competition.