Google ties up with MobileIron to create marketplace for cloud services

By Anirban Ghoshal

  • 31 Jan 2018
Credit: Reuters

E-commerce cloud startup Orbitera, which is owned by internet giant Google, has tied up with enterprise mobility management firm MobileIron to create a platform for customers to buy and deploy cloud services such as Software as a Service (SaaS).

Under the partnership, the two companies will collaborate to offer a new cloud service that combines the abilities of Orbitera's cloud platform and MobileIron's cloud security and mobile app distribution capabilities.

Google Cloud's rivals Amazon Web Services Marketplace and Microsoft AppSource also offer similar services to its enterprise customers in a marketplace model.

"We’re creating one place to deploy, secure, manage and analyse business applications," Marcin Kurc, head of commerce platform at Google Cloud, and Brian Singer, a senior product manager, jointly wrote in a blog post.

The duo said the goal of the collaboration to help businesses create an integrated marketplace where their customers and partners can access apps and streamline billing, application entitlement and authentication, as well as use Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for backend compute and storage services.

Google expects that the partnership will enable resellers, enterprises, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and independent service vendors (ISVs) to buy and redistribute cloud services through an integrated platform that supports multiple operating systems and devices.

MobileIron's chief executive officer Simon Biddiscombe said the new service will ensure that all enterprises that deploy multiple cloud services maintain the security of their cloud solutions.

"Operators have a fantastic business opportunity to become a bridge for secure cloud services marketplace for their customers," Biddiscombe said in a statement.

Google had acquired Los Angeles-headquartered Orbitera in August 2016 with the similar idea of helping enterprises to buy software services in the cloud.

According to the company, the platform automates many of the processes involved in procuring SaaS, including billing, packaging and monitoring usage.