Google Cloud Introduces a Premium Support Offering – What Took Them So Long?
Google has announced a premium support plan for its cloud customers, promising a 15-minute response to the highest severity tickets. Google’s cloud has long struggled with enterprise customers – especially when compared to giants Microsoft and AWS – and this announcement is the latest incarnation of Google’s push to better serve a critical constituency.
The new service brings Google Cloud’s offering in-line with that already available with G-Suite. Pricing is based on monthly cloud spend with a base cost of $12,500/month. That’s roughly $150,000/year, which highlights who Google is targeting with this offering.
For that money, Premium Support customers will have access to technical account managers, “context aware” expertise, configuration of third-party technology, and access to training materials (among other features).
Source: Google Cloud
It is clear that Google is targeting AWS and Azure enterprise customers with this new push. Will it work?
Our Take
Google’s cloud technology has historically suffered from a lack of organizational focus on the enterprise. Google’s decision to hire Thomas Kurian, former Oracle VP, got the enterprise sales/service ball rolling in earnest. Over the past year or so, Google has pivoted to be more friendly to the enterprise. Premium Support is the latest step in that evolution, a further sign that the search engine giant is serious about attracting the largest customers away from Amazon and Microsoft. For those customers hesitant to adopt Google’s services based on concerns about its commitment to enterprise support, this is a huge development. For those who want more (perhaps enforceable SLAs rather than Google’s “SLOs”), it might be worth holding out for the evolution to continue.