SADA, Intel collaborate in Google Cloud optimization program
Through a new partnership, SADA and Intel engineers will fine-tune customers' Google Cloud Platform environments; other IT channel news.
Business and technology consulting firm SADA has expanded its Google Cloud optimization services through a partnership with Intel.
The companies this week launched a program to improve customers' Google Cloud Platform (GCP) deployments that run on Intel hardware. Currently in pilot, the program taps SADA and Intel engineers, who will help customers with workload placement, cost and performance benchmarking, and GCP configuration, according to SADA, based in Los Angeles.
About a dozen of SADA's customers have participated in the Google Cloud optimization program and had to meet several requirements to qualify. Requirements include a certain level of annual spending on GCP offerings and use of GCP instance types, such as N2, C2, M2, M1 or O2, that are based on Intel hardware. Additionally, SADA selected customers who run workloads related to smart analytics, data warehousing, infrastructure modernization or application modernization.
If the pilot program proves successful, SADA will look to open it up to a wider set of customers, SADA CEO Tony Safoian said in an interview.
Tony Safoian
The Google Cloud optimization program also encourages SADA customers to gradually migrate more of their workloads to GCP. "Customers that are excited about the performance [and cost] benefits of running on Intel processors on GCP … will hopefully have the confidence to continue their investment and journey on GCP and move more workloads over time," Safoian said.
To instill confidence in customers who are hesitant of cloud migrations, the program will highlight the Intel technology underlying GCP instances, evoking the famous "Intel Inside" campaign of the 1990s, Safoian said. Whereas that campaign made the case for PCs to run on Intel, SADA and Intel hope to now make the case for clouds that run on Intel.
"[The Intel Inside strategy] made it common vernacular to talk about what's inside a computer for the first time ever," Safoian said. "Nobody had understood or cared before. Now we are talking … about what's inside the cloud."
Other news
- London-based professional services firm EY said it will build out its EY Microsoft Services Group. Under an expanded partnership with Microsoft, Microsoft will provide technical training to more than 150,000 of EY's professionals. Additionally, Microsoft will dedicate engineering talent to the group over the next five years, according to EY.
- Upstack, a web platform that sells cloud services through cloud sales agents, acquired CloudAdvise, a technology infrastructure advisory firm based in New York. CloudAdvise founder and CEO Greg Moss will join Upstack as partner and managing director and a true equity stakeholder, according to Upstack, also based in New York. The acquisition follows Berkshire Partners' $50 million equity investment in Upstack in April.
- Accenture Ventures has invested in Pipeline, a startup based in Denver that uses AI technology to help companies identify gender biases and close the gender equity gap. The AI platform analyzes an organization's data related to hiring, pay, performance and job promotion, and recommends ways to improve financial performance as well as individual employee growth, Accenture said.
- Tigera, a Kubernetes security and observability vendor, unveiled a global partner program for its Calico Cloud and Calico Enterprise offerings. Program benefits include sales leads, incentives, deal registration, technical support and product education, the company said. Partners can also receive compensation for referrals.
- Networking vendor Cradlepoint released a new partner portal. The portal, dubbed Cradlepoint Cascade, streamlines partner processes and provides business, sales and training resources, the company said.
- Distributor Ingram Micro Cloud said its team has collectively achieved 200 AWS certifications.
Executive appointments
- Wipro Ltd., an IT, consulting and business process services company, appointed former Deloitte Consulting executive Jason Eichenholz as its senior vice president and global partnership lead.
- MSP software vendor NinjaRMM named Shane Stevens as its chief technology officer. Stevens was previously vice president of engineering for new products, for Centrify. In addition to hiring Stevens, NinjaRMM opened a new office in downtown Austin, Texas.
- MSP software vendor ConnectWise made senior executive hires in the Asia-Pacific region. ConnectWise appointed Harry Guy as senior manager of APAC sales and Katrina Evans as senior manager for marketing in APAC.
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