SHI UK boss unconvinced by Google's channel play

Darren Brodrick explains to CRN why Google needs to improve its partner programme if it wants to take on AWS and Azure

Google Cloud has yet to deliver a compelling channel programme to partners, according to SHI UK general manager Darren Brodrick.

The global reseller is partnered with the 'big three' cloud providers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, but Brodrick remains unconvinced about the latter's ability to deliver on its channel vows.

"We certainly see opportunities across the three but there is more emphasis today in our business with Azure and AWS," Brodrick (pictured) told CRN.

"I don't think Google itself has really delivered - especially for the UK market or to SHI - a compelling enough partner programme that gives us the appetite to sell Google Cloud services.

"It's kind of the reverse when it comes to Microsoft and AWS. Microsoft over the past 12 to 18 months has taken a bigger interest in SHI's UK business and has certainly helped educate and mould us to a certain point to be able to create and deliver new and additional services for Azure, especially with CSP."

Brodrick added that in July, SHI UK will become a tier-one CSP, which means it can buy cloud services straight from Microsoft to sell to the end consumer, having previously bought the services through distribution.

The reseller will also be investing heavily in its AWS competencies over the coming 12 months, the UK manager said.

He is unsurprised about Google's renewed concentration on its channel partners, stating that it had to make such a move in order to gain market share against its two bigger rivals.

"They have to focus on the channel," he said.

"I don't know what that focus is today - which is mostly one of the reasons why they're trying to change that perception.

"In recent years, Microsoft and AWS have done a very good job of educating their channel partners and helping to build the tools that partners need to sell their services.

"We haven't seen that from Google at a local UK level. If it's serious about the UK market, and it's serious about helping partners enable themselves to be able to sell its services, I think it needs to do a better job of getting in front of the partners that it wants to work with, and educating them on the tools that they need to use to build successful practices."

However, Brodrick is optimistic that once the vendor gets its ducks in a row with US partners, success will be exported to its partners in other regions.

"I think once it understands that US market, it [will] expand and bring itself into new emerging markets," he added.

"And the UK is certainly a market that's very advanced when it comes to cloud.

"I think once they've done a good job in the US, hopefully, they'll start bringing it to the local market and helping partners like us."