We are excited to announce today an expansion into the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Marketplace to provide customers with increased agility, advanced networking and security, and a simplified procurement experience. Instead of managing multiple vendor purchase orders, GCP customers can consolidate their software and service purchases on one GCP bill, which supports faster customer adoption of Alkira Cloud Services Exchange (CSX). This can deliver seamless GCP capabilities to Alkira customers and provides a dramatically simplified cloud network service offering for on-premises, cloud, and multi-cloud networking environments.
Why is this a big deal?
This marketplace integration will offer several advantages, including:
- Efficient acquisition process for GCP users
- Increased discoverability for Alkira’s CXP solution within the GCP ecosystem
- Faster deployment cycles for organizations seeking to leverage Alkira on GCP
GCP Marketplace makes it very easy for customers to purchase Alkira from their marketplace. If Google is already one of your preferred vendors, you can buy Alkira without needing an internal vendor review. Likewise, purchasing Alkira services through the GCP Marketplace takes advantage of flexible billing models and retire Google Cloud committed spend. Customers can still purchase Alkira through their preferred channel partner or directly from Alkira in the marketplace.
Alkira is now part of the GCP Marketplace Program, a co-sell program for GCP partners who provide software solutions that run on or integrate with GCP. The program helps drive new business and accelerate sales cycles by connecting participating ISVs with the GCP sales organization.
Gartner wrote in a market guide to cloud networking: “It’s relatively simple to implement basic network functionality in cloud provider networks but is difficult to add feature depth and scalability that many network teams are accustomed to. This creates increasing demand for cloud networking software.”
Gartner estimates that by 2025, 35% of companies that use multiple public cloud providers will use a single network stack, an increase of over 10 times from May 2021.
The Gartner report says, “The native networking capabilities of public cloud providers are insufficient for some production enterprise workloads. Virtual routers and virtual appliances offered by established vendors often don’t meet the requirements of cloud and DevOps teams, particularly around programmability, integration or licensing.”
