Sachin Verma - Managing Director, Oreta
Google is delivering on plans to build out a channel ecosystem across Australia, signing up Melbourne-based start-up Oreta as a strategic cloud partner.
In firing warning shots at Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, the tech giant is acting on local market momentum following the launch of Google Cloud Platform (GCP) in Australia only two months ago.
With the ink barely dry, ARN can reveal that Oreta has joined the new-look network in two forms, as a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) partner and also a reseller.
“Google launching a cloud platform in your country is not an everyday occurrence and we wanted to take full advantage,” Oreta managing director Sachin Verma told ARN. “We plan to consume Google’s ecosystem in a focused way, we want to be infrastructure specialists and we want to be known for it.
“We have a razor-sharp focus around how best to utilise the benefits of the platform and will be standing up our workforce to boost our capabilities.”
As reported by ARN, Google officially touched down in a cloud capacity on 21 June, with Sydney becoming part of the nine regions, 27 zones and 100 points of presence comprising the global GCP footprint.
With the green light now flashing, partners and end-users across Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) now have access to a range of locally-sourced GCP services, as the vendor bolsters its cloud footprint throughout the region.
In parallel, Google has also acted on plans to build a channel locally, targeting key cloud players through the appointment of Melbourne-based Ash Willis as head of cloud partners and alliances across Asia Pacific and Japan in May, as revealed by ARN.
The move follows a global Google initiative to bolster partner program capabilities through the cloud, offering low interest loans, co-funding deals and improved rebates in a revamp announced in March.
“We chose to partner with Oreta due to their well respected brand and proven delivery experience,” Google Cloud head of cloud partners and alliances Ash Willis told ARN.
“The fact that Oreta has strong and scaleable delivery capabilities is very appealing. Our customer base is growing rapidly as is the size and complexity of workloads that organisations are choosing to run on Google Cloud. Having partners like Oreta is key to helping customers on this journey.”
Oreta joins an expanding list of expert Google Cloud partners across Australia, including specialist players Shine Solutions, Fronde, 3wks and OniGroup, as well as consultancy houses PwC and Accenture.
Yet expansion also comes with caution for the cloud provider, with a quality over quantity approach the order of the day.
“While we are actively expanding our partner ecosystem, we continue to be selective on who we chose to work with,” Willis added. “We want a solid group of partners that we can build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with.”
Australian advantage
With expertise across both public and private cloud platforms, Oreta is a leading Telstra partner across Australia, leveraging key partnerships with VMware, NetApp, Cisco, Veeam and Microland.
From a cloud standpoint, the provider also delivers solutions on AWS, Microsoft and IBM SoftLayer platforms, specialising in advisory, integration, networking security monitoring and managed services.
Going forward however, Google Cloud will take centre stage, as the business builds a practice dedicated to leveraging GCP.
“This partnership has been four months in the making and we have been eyeing up Google for a while,” Verma explained.
“Since the GCP launch locally, it has become much more obvious as to why we should be partnering. We have always wondered how Google would approach the cloud in Australia but now we have clarity.
“They continue to invest in the right talent locally and have built a very strong team which was a key factor in our decision. The ability of Google to execute and the brand’s global brand power has never been in question, but now we know they are committed to Australia.”
In detailing strategic priorities for the Australian market, Verma said Google Cloud has now become a credible third option for both customers and partners in the cloud, as the vendor seeks to add another layer of competition to an increasingly crowded market.
“Data sovereignty is a big issue and having a data centre on our shores is a great starting point for any cloud partner,” Verma added. “You can talk about your bells and whistles overseas but it’s about what you can offer here in Australia, which is now a huge tick in the box for Google.”
Gap in the market
For Verma, Google Cloud offers a viable alternative, threatening the long-held market dominance of AWS and Microsoft Azure both locally and globally.
“There’s a gap in the market for Google,” he said. “We have been offering AWS services and a little of Azure but a gap has always existed for a hybrid public cloud partner.
“AWS and Azure are huge players in the market but from an AWS perspective, the whole ‘Amazonise’ concept is too extreme from our perspective.
“We believe in a hybrid cloud and don’t follow the approach of taking everything under the sun and sticking it up in the public cloud, hoping that it works.”
