Third-Party Cos. Can Sell Google Cloud Services

Omma-Data-LA-2012-AThe ability for consumers to traverse from one device to another and for brands to target ads cross-platform will require cloud services to store data and content. Google has announced a partnership program that allows third-party companies to use and sell its cloud services.

The move identifies a need for a closer working relationship between marketing, advertising and IT to support data and Web services.

The company divided the partner program into two categories: Technology Partners provide tools that integrate with its platform. Service Partners provide advice and implementation options to use cloud services, aimed at supporting business, mobile and social apps, so companies can dig deeper into business intelligence.

Some of Google's first appointed cloud services partners are known for their IT expertise, such as Computer Sciences, WiPro Technologies, and LTech.

According to Eric Morse, head of sales and business development for the Google Cloud Platform group, in the last decade, Google invested in building an infrastructure that can serve 4 billion hours of video monthly, support 425 million Gmail users, and store 100 petabytes of Web index.

At the MediaPost OMMA Data & Targeting conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Christopher Snyder -- president at Juhll, a marketing agency -- said all his company's offerings rely on cloud services. "We're a 10-person shop, so I feel we don't have a choice," he said. "If the office burned down tomorrow at least all of our work would be saved. We'd only lose furniture."

Snyder said it doesn't make sense to store content on a server anymore. Similarly, IDG Tech Network Director of Marketing Danielle Krieger grabs and shares content with internal clients on a cloud service.

Jamie Weniger, senior account executive at PulsePoint, said his company stores multiple gigabytes of sales and marketing collateral on Box, which supports sales marketing and IT, rather than consumer-based content, like SendIt.

However, Neustar Vice President, Advertising Sales Mike Blacker's experience with Google Docs wasn't ideal, so his company began using DropBox as an alternative when documents are too big to send through email.

With the amount of data that companies now collect and store for content, targeting and more, Michael Horn, SVP ad managing partner at Decision Sciences, suggests the industry needs a data ratings service to quantify numbers coming from key performance indicators and third-party companies. 

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