With an aim to capture market share from Amazon and Microsoft, Google India is luring corporates with its machine learning and AI technologies at attractive price points.
The company has announced a slew of new clients ranging from new-age companies such as Hike to older companies like Ashok Leyland, which are using Google’s technologies around machine learning and artificial intelligence.
“As Hike expands its business beyond messaging into new stuff like wallet, Google’s cloud enables its evolution, by using techniques like machine learning,” Mohit Pande, Country Head - India, Google Cloud, told BusinessLine.
Google Cloud is a portfolio of technologies such as Gmail, Maps and computing servers that enable companies to build, test and deploy their technologies. Google has also bagged clients such as DTDC and Goibibo.
Google provides its vast array of machines and software algorithms which can be used to perform complex calculations. Companies need not invest in their own hardware or software and instead use Google’s resources for a fee. This is similar to Amazon and Microsoft which also offer machine learning and AI services to companies. Ashok Leyland, for example, is taking Google’s help in vehicle diagnosis to determine the health of a particular vehicle.
Partner ecosystem
Further, Google is putting in place a partner ecosystem that will take its technology to other Indian companies. The tech giant counts BluePi, Happiest Minds, Searce, Team Computers, Microland, MediaAgility, Shivaami, CloudCover and Powerupcloud as some of its Indian partners.
Additionally, Pande said that in order to develop the expertise and skillsets of software developers who can build apps on Google’s technologies, it has tied up with online course and certification provider Coursera. These initiatives are a part of Google’s efforts to go live in Mumbai, which is the fifth location in the Asia-Pacific region to provide computing, storage, big data and networking services to companies, according to Pande.
One of the areas which Google feels it has an advantage over competitors is pricing. “Customers get billed for the time they actually use rather than hourly billing, which is what the competition follows,” said Pande.
However, analysts are not convinced. What remains to be seen is whether Google, which is acknowledged for its expertise in dealing with you and me, can understand the needs of corporate clients such as banks or financial institutions, said Sanchit Vir Gogia, Founder, Greyhound Research.
According to Narinder Kumar, Executive Vice-President of cloud consulting computing company TO THE NEW, for the past two years, there has been an increase in the number of clients wanting to use Google. He, however, added that Amazon continues to lead this market.