Google Apps: 700 Cloud Partners Rally in San Francisco

The Google Apps team is throwing a channel partner party in San Francisco this week — and more than 700 partners are on hand for the conference. The big news so far: Google Apps now has about 10,000 cloud resellers, according to Talkin’ Cloud. But the news won’t end there. Here’s why.

Over the past few years, Google Apps has had roughly 6,000 partners. But that figure has quietly (and dramatically) grown to 10,000 partners, sources told Talkin’ Cloud — The VAR Guy’s sister site. Some of the success has been in the SMB market, where cloud pioneers like Jeff Ragusa spent 2010 and 2011 (or so) rallying small business partners. But much of the success has also involved larger cloud services brokerages — like Cloud Sherpas — driving Google Apps adoptions. And newer deals like a Google Apps-CDW relationship look promising.

Google certainly has momentum. But in some ways it’s still an uphill climb vs. Microsoft’s Office 365 in the channel. According to the 2014 MSPmentor 501 results, 66 percent of top MSPs are involved with Office 365, while 24 percent promote Google Apps.

During a recent interview with The VAR Guy, Microsoft VP Jenni Flinders said the cloud conversation has shifted in recent months. The best channel partners are now deeply versed in cloud opportunities, while the remaining laggards run the risk of losing relevance. Microsoft is expected to offer updated cloud partner milestones during Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2014 (July 13-17, Washington, D.C.).

Still, the current week belongs to Google — which is rallying those 700 channel partners in San Francisco. The VAR Guy expects plenty of additional channel news to emerge at the conference. Stay tuned…