Google Cloud just bumped Amazon as the main storage provider for Salesforce
- Salesforce announced a partnership with Google Cloud to help bring its service to new clients abroad.
- It's a big blow to Amazon Web Services (AWS), which was previously Salesforce's main cloud provider.
- AWS will still work with Salesforce, but now Google is taking some of its territory.
Salesforce's tight relationship with Amazon Web Service (AWS) just got a little less cozy. On Monday, Salesforce announced that it will add Google Cloud as a second preferred cloud provider.
Salesforce said it will keep working with AWS, though Google Cloud will provide core storage services for Salesforce as it prepares to expand internationally.
The partnership is a big win for Diane Greene, the head of Google Cloud, who was acqui-hired in late 2015 to help transform Google into a major influencer in enterprise technology. Google remains number three in the ongoing cloud wars, which is led by AWS, and followed closely by Microsoft Azure.
Google made clear on its earnings call last month that it's taking its cloud business seriously. The company increased its headcount by 2,495 people last quarter, and most of those new hires are in technical and sales jobs in its cloud business.
In addition to cloud storage, Salesforce and Google will collaborate on integrations across Salesforce's customer relationship management software and G Suite, Google's set of cloud-based office tools like documents and spreadsheets.
Among the new features, customers can move records and reports from Salesforce onto a Google spreadsheet with the click of a button. The Salesforce tool that can pick out which customer inquiries are most high priority will also be integrated with the email service Gmail, to highlight which emails are most important. Those emails can also be imported into the Salesforce interface.
Google, for its part, will continue using Salesforce's software internally to manage its sales relationships.