Google Cloud Partner opportunity to more than triple by 2025, according to IDC study

Thanks to my role at Google Cloud, I’m privileged with a front-row seat to all of the amazing work our partners do on behalf of customers. Our partners play a critical role in delivering Google Cloud technology and solutions to organizations all over the world, so I am delighted to share the findings of a new study from IDC that shows Google Cloud is thriving, growing, and driving significant economic benefit for partners. 

To summarize IDC’s study in a few words: Demand for cloud technology and services is growing rapidly, as businesses embark on digital transformations, and Google Cloud partners are particularly well-positioned to help customers plan and execute their digital transformation strategies.

According to IDC, “growth mode” continues for the IT market overall, and importantly, demand for cloud infrastructure, and cloud capabilities in areas like data analytics, artificial intelligence, IoT, and security is growing at an even faster pace. I’ve seen firsthand how the global pandemic has further increased businesses’ needs for these capabilities, as they seek to quickly adapt or even to take this opportunity to accelerate their digital transformations.

As IDC reports, “This is good news for Google Cloud partners, who by their nature are engaged across many of these technologies.” In fact, the analyst firm’s study forecasts that partners’ revenue from Google Cloud-related opportunities will more than triple by 2025, representing a tremendous opportunity for the ecosystem overall in building out their Google Cloud practices.

IDC’s research also found that Google Cloud partners’ businesses are growing at a fast clip. On average, partners are growing their Google Cloud businesses at a rate of 35% year-over-year, with a significant group of partners—one in five—growing even faster, at 75%-plus year-over-year.

All of this translates to a thriving ecosystem around Google Cloud technologies, and it’s encouraging to see how much value is passed through to our partners. Globally, for every $1 of Google Cloud technology sold in 2020, partners will generate $5.32 through their own offerings, services, and IP. IDC expects this number to grow, reaching $7.54 by 2025. 

IDC’s study also provides insights into several other benefits that partners are seeing from working with Google Cloud:

• Google Cloud partners are leading the way on digital transformation. IDC places a full half (50%) of Google Cloud partners in the “late stage of digital maturity,” and more than a third of Google Cloud partners have “fully integrated digital into their strategies and businesses,” meaning customers can trust Google Cloud partners to bring very strong expertise with modern cloud technologies and solutions.

• At Google Cloud, we are focused on delivering end-to-end, best-in-class solutions. Many of our partners are extending these solutions, and IDC’s study found that these partners, who are creating their own unique IP around Google Cloud, are seeing very strong margins associated with these products. 

• Partners are benefitting from our goal of 100% partner attach on all customer sales, and partners are seeing strong margins across multiple activities, including resale, IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS add-ons, IT services, business services, and support for hardware and networking.

We have a tremendous opportunity together to help customers across industries and around the world transform their organizations with the cloud. I’m proud of the amazing work that our partners are doing, and we’re committed to continuing to work closely with partners to expand the Google Cloud economy together. To read IDC’s findings in full, you can download the report here.