Introduction
In the era of digital transformation, small and medium businesses (SMBs) are turning to the power of the cloud to stay innovative and competitive. Be it an online business or a brick-and-mortar store, small businesses are opting for the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to improve their customer experience (CX).
With 99.95% availability, Google Cloud is setting benchmarks that assure SMBs of the ability to deliver a consistent level of service. In a market dominated by heavyweights like AWS and Azure, GCP is growing at a fast clip and making an impact. Overall, the latest statistics reveal that GCP has a 9% market share – and has improved its revenues by 45%. This is because of the value it delivers. For instance, an IDC study found that SMBs using Google Cloud have achieved:
- 222% increase in their ROI over 3 years
- 41% higher IT team efficiency
- 19% increase in developer’s productivity
- 26% lower costs in infrastructure
These numbers aside, why should SMBs prefer to invest in GCP over other cloud platforms? Here are 3 crucial focus areas where Google Cloud scores over other providers:
1. Technical insights
Here are some of the technical capabilities of GCP that make it preferable for use in SMBs:
1. Open-source technology
Built as an open-source technology platform, GCP makes it possible for SMBs to build their cloud infrastructure over the existing infrastructure. What’s more impressive is that GCP supports multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments. Open-source technology makes it feasible for SMBs to achieve digital transformation without the associated complexities.
Additionally, GCP offers a host of managed services from other open-source technology partners. By integrating these third-party services, GCP ensures a seamless user experience.
2. Intelligent analytics
With its built-in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning, Google Cloud enables SMBs to extract valuable insights from its business data. With AI-powered intelligent analytics, SMBs can make accurate business predictions and deliver a personalized CX. These capabilities empower small businesses to innovate quickly and scale up their operations.
3. Data security and uptime
SMBs often face an extended downtime when migrating from an on-premises to the cloud environment. With its 99.95% availability, GCP offers maximum uptime and reliability once the move is made. Additionally, GCP offers multiple encryption options to secure data – when at rest, in transit, or in use. With its private network, Google Cloud ensures that sensitive data is not stored on the public cloud for an extended time, thus keeping it safe from cyberattacks.
Besides these technical capabilities, GCP solutions are cost-effective for the benefit of SMBs with budget constraints. According to IDC, SMBs spend on average 26% less over three years because of the following reasons:
- Preemptible VM instances
- Automated patches
- Serverless architecture
- Customer support
2. Performance factors
Google’s data center network is spread across major continents including North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Australia. Overall, Google Cloud operates 35 data centers around the globe. Although this number is less than those for MS Azure and AWS, Google’s data centers are known for their:
- High availability
- Fault tolerance
- Concurrent maintenance
- Optimum performance
Of course, it’s important to keep the environment in mind at these times. For the sustainability-minded, it’s worth keeping in mind that a Google data center is 1.5 times more energy efficient than other data centers.
Additionally, GCP is best suited for applications requiring low latency and faster data transfers. Using Google Cloud, organizations can optimize their application latency with the following load-balancing options:
- External application load balancer – with support for HTTP traffic and innovative features like URL mapping and SSL offloading.
- External passthrough network load balancer – which allows any network traffic to pass through the load balancer.
Another important performance criterion is speed. But as most of the popular cloud providers offer different storage formats – like block, file, and object it makes it difficult to directly compare performance metrics across various conditions. That said, recent analysis has shown that Google Drive, an important component of Google’s Cloud portfolio is the 2nd fastest cloud storage provider, only marginally behind specialist storage vendor IceDrive.
3. Google Cloud – Use Cases and Customer Success
Across industry domains, SMBs are leveraging Google Cloud to grow their business. Here are some of the interesting stories from around the world of organizations who moved to Google cloud and are now reaping tremendous benefits:
1. Leading battery franchise, US
Based in Wisconsin, this is a story of one of the fast-growing battery franchises in the repair of batteries, smartphones, and light bulbs. In 2017, the company faced a major crisis when its data center hosting company decided to close down production and testing centers.
The company began evaluating the benefits of migrating its workload to Google Cloud. Following the migration, the company has seen a significant improvement in its application performance and availability.
2. Leading Marketplace, US
With product offerings from over 2.8 million small enterprises and 66 million sold units, this is a story of one of the leading marketplaces for consumer gifts and personalized items. After moving its eCommerce platform and data centers to Google Cloud, the company witnessed the following improvements:
- 50% reduction in computing energy requirements
- 42% reduction in operating costs
By using GCP, marketplace firm now has 24/7 access to cloud-powered data centers that help them plan and forecast market demand. Additionally, the company has successfully optimized its energy consumption and reduced its carbon footprint.
3. Leading PLM Software Provider, US
One of the leading solution providers for product lifecycle management (PLM) software tools wanted to save costs and improve performance, the company wanted to migrate its cloud-powered workloads to Google Cloud. The company successfully migrated 10 cloud applications to GCP – in addition to a customized VPN solution using Terraform. Post the GCP migration, the software provider achieved the following results:
- Cost optimization of data originating from diverse sources.
- Real-time visibility into the company’s networks
- Ability to automate the existing workforce.
Conclusion
To summarize, SMBs across industry domains prefer Google Cloud for its cost-effectiveness, superior performance, and successful case studies. As a Google Cloud Services partner, Pratiti Technologies provides a range of consultation and implementation services for Google Cloud customers.
We also offer a range of cloud computing services including consultancy, managed services, DevOps, and cloud-native application development. Are you looking to migrate your workload to Google Cloud? We can help you out. Contact us today!
After successful stint in a corporate role, Nitin is back to what he enjoys most – conceptualizing new software solutions to solve business problems. Nitin is a postgraduate from IIT, Mumbai, India and in his 24 years of career, has played key roles in building a desktop as well as enterprise solutions right from idealization to launch which are adopted by many Fortune 500 companies. As a Founder member of Pratiti Technologies, he is committed to applying his management learning as well as the passion for building new solutions to realize your innovation with certainty.
