Greater Google Investment in its Enterprise Business

Google is increasing its investment in enterprise businesses, even though it has, until now, generated most of its revenue from advertising.

Over half of Fortune 500 companies pay for Google enterprise products, and around 5 million companies use Google Apps for Business, according to the senior vice president and chief business officer, Nikesh Arora.

Google's enterprise revenue is predicted to account for around five percent of its overall business, and Arora noted that the enterprise is "another great revenue stream for Google."

Productivity apps such as Google Docs, Gmail and the Google Cloud Platform, which includes its App Engine platform-as-a-service and its Compute Engine infrastructure-as-a-service, are all featured in Google's enterprise business.

Google Search Appliance and GeoSpatial Solutions are also part of this, and can be used by companies to develop apps which can include Google Maps.

There is plenty of opportunity for Google to broaden the reach of its enterprise, but in previous earning calls, the company has not commented a great deal on business. Partners of Google are keen for this to translate into more resources and support, to aid their battle against Microsoft and others in the enterprise market.

The CEO of Google partner Cumulus Global, said: "Part of me says it's about time. Enterprise is strategic for us, so it's good to see it is strategic for Google, too."

Further to this, the president of the Google business of another Google partner, Cloud Sherpas, Doug Shepard, said: "Google's enterprise business has crossed the threshold from a startup organization to a fairly large team,"

Cumulus Global is based in Westboro, Massachusetts, and sells Google Apps to small and medium-sized businesses and local government agencies. Falcon notes that in the last few years, Google Apps sales have doubled. Managed file services using Google Drive are also now being sold by Cumulus Global.

Zimbra customers who are keen to change to Google Apps have been contacting Falcon, and last week Zimbra was sold by VMware to Dallas, Texas-based Telligent (an enterprise collaboration vendor), which makes a suite of SaaS apps.

The strengthening with HP also means that Google is able to obtain more enterprise accounts. HP is distributing its Chromebook and uses Android for two of its tablets; both Google and HP are now collaborating to partner on SMB IT In a Box, which bundles Google Apps with HP PCs and printers.

Google Cloud Platform and Google Apps together accounted for $200 million in revenue during the quarter, according to Technology Business Research. This is a 195 percent leap from last year's second quarter, according to TBR analyst, Jillian Mirandi.

It is predicted that Google will generate $885 million in revenue from these products this year, Mirandi added. (CY) Link