Summary: Google acquired third party software developer CloudSimple. CloudSimple created a platform that allows VMware workloads to run natively on both Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure. It only came out of stealth mode earlier this year. Financial details were not disclosed but CloudSimple is not a large acquisition for Google. It is a privately held company and has received $35m in investments from various sources including M12 (what was once Microsoft Ventures). The interest here is more in the capabilities acquired. CloudSimple’s platform allows enterprises to run VMware’s vSphere natively on Google’s cloud infrastructure platform. It is a similar arrangement to what AWS and VMware have done with VMware Cloud on AWS. Running vSphere natively on a public cloud lets enterprises move workloads over without having to re-write code, giving the the ability to keep the same tools, while taking advantage of the economics of OpEx-based cloud. This hybrid of VMware and public cloud is emerging as a popular use case. That is not surprising as the expense and effort of re-coding applications is one of the largest barriers to cloud adoption. Google Cloud could not afford to be left behind in this area as enterprises are exploring how to get to cloud and it needed to have a clear answer similar to AWS. Google actually disclosed a partnership with CloudSimple earlier this year and this acquisition takes that one stage further. Where does this leave CloudSimple investor Microsoft though? Given that Redmond was an investor, we can imagine its position is protected. It looks as if CloudSimple will carry on providing the same service to Azure for now, but that may change over time. Overall, a move made to compete with AWS and get in the mix for enterprise workloads that are moving to cloud at an increasingly fast pace. It has to get involved in this land grab in a meaningful way.
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