IDC Research “The Business Value of Improved Performance and Efficiency with Google Cloud Platform” shows that Google Cloud SMB customers can achieve a 222% return on their investment and 36% lower cost of operations over three years with an average annual benefit of $1.09 million per year per organization.”
Specifically, in the post-pandemic era, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) may often find themselves juggling resources and attention between building resilient technological infrastructure and delivering superior customer experiences. Moreover, the amount of data generated is growing by leaps and bounds and will increase 5X by 2025. In such a scenario, on-premise solutions no longer suffice.
Consequently, many organizations are turning to public cloud services to help them spend less time managing the infrastructure and addressing the operational needs of an increasingly data-driven business landscape and more time growing the business.
Google Cloud is a good choice for SMBs looking for data storage, data security, web servers, and built-in artificial intelligence, packed in an all-in-one, open, reliable, and innovative solution.
Let’s explore further.
The Power of Google Cloud for SMBs
Intelligent SMBs, be it startups or local brick-and-mortars, have started moving to the cloud. The Google Cloud Platform has emerged as the choice for businesses looking for disruptive solutions to empower the value of their cloud infrastructure and investment.
According to the same IDC Research, the Google Cloud helps maintain 41% more efficient IT teams and lowers IT infrastructure costs by 26%.
Google “strives to democratize technology and build products that reduce complexity, increase speed, and unleash creativity.”
Here’s unlocking some of the benefits of the Google Cloud Platform that makes it a good choice for SMBs.
1. Build with open, flexible technology - Choose the cloud environment you need!
The Google Cloud Platform (GCP) has provisions for open source, multi-cloud, and hybrid cloud solutions. Google Cloud’s approach to open source revolves around building on existing technology infrastructure in a way that’s best for small and medium-sized businesses.
The platform reduces the complexities associated with creating robust digital businesses, allowing SMBs the opportunity to innovate, measure, and scale their operations and migrate with ease to the cloud.
2. Uncover maximum value at lower costs
SMBs often face budgeting and staffing issues, so it’s essential for them to do IT operations as cost-effectively as possible.
As seen above, with the Google Cloud Platform, such organizations can achieve a 41% improvement in overall efficiency across IT teams or the equivalent productivity of almost three IT staff resources, and also spend 26% less over three years with Google Cloud.
With no upfront investment needed, Google Cloud is a good choice for SMBs, particularly organizations that don’t often witness year-on-year budget increases.
Google Cloud’s pay-as-you-go basis pricing (consumption-based pricing model) allows you to pay for only what you need, requiring no licensing agreement, upfront cost, or termination fees.
- Built-in reports and custom dashboards enhance visibility into current cost trends and cost forecasts
- Google Cloud drives accountability by organizing resources and allocating costs efficiently
- Robust governance controls improve cost predictability and reduce the risk of overspending
- AI-driven recommendations help optimize cloud usage and associated costs
- Organizations needn’t worry about maintenance and upgrades as they are handled by the Google Cloud team
3. Accelerate innovation with intelligent analytics
Google Cloud’s easy-to-use platform has built-in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities, making it easier for SMBs to accelerate innovation and scale operations easily. Such tools help extract actionable business insights, quickly address IT issues, automate operations, and accelerate time-to-market.
Moreover, GCP’s serverless data analytics feature helps SMBs streamline processes, make intelligent predictions, and deliver personalized customer engagement that automatically translates to enhanced customer loyalty.
4. Move to the cloud in a completely secure and reliable way
The Google Cloud Platform promises SMBs unparalleled security and reliability with 99.95% uptime and industry-standard infrastructure and services that Google uses for its own organization – technologies that SMBs might otherwise be unable to afford due to budget constraints.
Google’s completely private physical network ensures data is secure and spends the least time possible on the public network where it may be prone to a cyberattack. Moreover, Google hires the best industry talent in application, information, and network security and notifies clients immediately if a compromising data security breach is detected.
Core Google Cloud Platform Offerings for SMBs
- GCP Cloud Migration
Google Cloud’s Cloud Migration services help SMBs leverage a consistent API and unprecedented latency and speed to migrate enterprise-wide data loads to the cloud and enable data archiving, data analysis, and live data serving.
- Data Modernization
BigQuery, Google’s serverless, scalable, and low-cost enterprise data warehouse management, allows seamless app modernization for SMBs. The solution allows intelligent data analysis and secure sharing of generated insights as datasets, queries, and spreadsheets.
- AI and Natural Language Understanding
DialogFlow, Google’s intuitive, natural language understanding platform, helps SMBs quickly design and integrate a conversational user interface within their websites, IVR, and mobile apps.
- Containerization
Kubernetes, Google’s mixed private and public cloud environment, automates cluster management and orchestration by bringing Google’s latest innovations in automation, developer productivity, and resource efficiency to the table.
Let’s look at how Google Cloud helped iCook establish low-cost and scalable data modernization and warehouse management and seamlessly respond to users’ queries.
iCook: Delivering personalized recipe-sharing services with BigQuery
Polydice operates iCook, one of the most popular social recipe-sharing website and application in Taiwan.
In Taiwan, when users want a recipe, they usually visit the iCook website or mobile app in Taiwan. As the service became popular, the iCook’s leadership discovered that their existing cloud vendor could no longer support its massive growth. Costs were high, data queries were getting stuck, and users were getting slow, sluggish responses.
That’s when iCook turned to the Google Cloud platform to establish a solid AI-foundation, achieve greater stability, and lower costs.
The business now leverages BigQuery to support serverless, scalable data warehousing and support its 5 million monthly users and 4.5 million app downloads without any query bottlenecks.
GCP and BigQuery have enabled a 10x improvement in data infrastructure stability and allowed the organization to respond rapidly to its social media users’ queries.
Join Hands with a Google Cloud Partner!
Managing the migration of your data and applications to the cloud can be daunting. With Google Cloud, you are not alone in this endeavor, and that’s where a Google Cloud Partner comes into the picture.
Google technology teams and their network of thousands of Google Certified Partners can help smoothen the transition to the Cloud every step of the way. With a Google Cloud Partner, you enjoy benefits such as –
- A set of customized premium Google Cloud services
- 24X7 dedicated support
- Customized service and pricing packages
- Change management services
- Workshops and training for your staff
- Proof of concept
- Architecture and security audits
- Quarterly roadmap sessions and reviews
The Google team works in collaboration with its certified partners to help build tailored solutions that drive profitability in an ever-changing business landscape.
Enjoy Google Cloud Partner benefits and services with Acuvate
Acuvate is a certified Google Partner, providing GCP services across four significant areas: data migration, data modernization, chatbots & conversational AI, and hybrid cloud development, including containerization.
In our 15+ years of experience, we have implemented 30+ near-zero downtime cloud migrations and helped several small and medium-sized enterprises build a strong foundation for data migration and application modernization.
Our team consists of more than 100 cloud, database, and data warehouse experts, ready to provide 24x7x365 proactive monitoring and support to help you reap maximum value from your investment in Google Cloud.
To know more about our GCP services, please feel free to schedule a personalized consultation with our experts.
