GCP – Partner growth with Google Cloud: A strategy for maximized and sustained earnings

In today’s dynamic cloud market, true growth comes from strategic clarity. For Google Cloud partners, unlocking immense market potential and building a thriving services practice hinges on a definitive roadmap. That’s why we partnered with global technology analyst firm Canalys to independently study the Partner Ecosystem Multiplier (PEM) – a measure of the incremental revenue you can capture when working with Google Cloud.

The study confirms a key finding: For every US$1 a customer invests in Google Cloud, partners delivering comprehensive services across the customer lifecycle stand to capture up to $7.05 in incremental revenue through their own offerings. This top-tier potential is strongly linked to expanding your services across the entire customer lifecycle – a journey many Google Cloud partners are already on, influencing nearly 80% of Google Cloud’s YoY incremental revenue growth in 2024.

Beyond the number: the strategic path leading up to $7.05

The real takeaway goes beyond the number; it’s about how you can strategically navigate this journey and build towards comprehensive service delivery. Canalys’ research visualizes this through a “partner ecosystem flywheel,” which maps typical partner activities across a three-year customer journey. This powerful framework (illustrated below) outlines how leading partners strategically engage customers across six distinct stages: Advise, Design, Procure, Build, Adopt, and Manage.

To achieve this top-tier potential, Canalys highlights the importance of being in a mature cloud region and developing capabilities across the entire customer lifecycle. If you’re already familiar with multipliers, what sets this apart is how partners can leverage Google Cloud’s strengths in analytics, data, and Generative AI to unlock significant revenue over a three-year project cycle, especially by driving GenAI solutions to production.

How partners create value with the ecosystem flywheel

This flywheel is a roadmap for your growth. The study found that partners who haven’t yet achieved the full multiplier potential might currently focus on specific stages by choice, or haven’t yet fully developed maturity across all these service areas. Achieving maximum potential means expanding your practice within each of these flywheel segments

1. Advise: influence the customer journey (11% of Multiplier): Vital for influencing long-term customer engagement and shaping their cloud destiny, laying groundwork for subsequent opportunities.

2. Design: build a strong technical foundation (25% of Multiplier): While Design represents nearly a quarter of the total multiplier, successful partners use this stage strategically to set the foundation for higher-value opportunities. By architecting solutions that fully leverage Google Cloud’s AI and data capabilities from the start, partners create pathways for expanded returns and long-term revenue growth from the Build, Adopt, and Manage phases of the cycle.

3. Procure: optimize commercial foundations (5% of Multiplier): The smallest category of the multiplier, this focuses on re-sell and commercial management, laying essential commercial groundwork.

4. Build: unlock AI’s transformative power (24% of Multiplier): Google Cloud’s most compelling growth engine. Overwhelmingly driven by Generative AI, this segment is where partners create customized AI solutions and integrations, moving projects from proof of concept to production. Beyond Gen AI, cybersecurity, application modernization, and infrastructure support are also major revenue drivers.

5. Adopt: drive expansion and prove ROI (17% of Multiplier): Ensures customers effectively use Google Cloud and realize its value, identifying cross-sell and upsell opportunities and fueling overall PEM. Partners that focus here are best positioned for identifying cross-sell and upsell opportunities, driving increased Google Cloud consumption, and setting the stage for subsequent “Build” opportunities within the same customer.

6. Manage: Secure Recurring Revenue (18% of Multiplier): Provides ongoing operational support through managed services, offering a clear pathway to recurring revenue and ensuring continuous customer value.

For a detailed breakdown of each flywheel segment’s contribution, including specific dollar values, we encourage you to explore the accompanying Canalys factsheet. 

Your long-term edge: The Google Cloud multiplier

The revenue opportunity unfolds strategically across three years. The first year, largely advisory and migration services, hold 51.6% of the multiplier opportunity, but the most significant growth for Google Cloud partners unfolds afterward. Transformative opportunities, particularly transitioning Generative AI proofs of concept to production, typically emerge from year three.

Google Cloud’s ongoing innovation in AI and data powers these later-year opportunities. By building your practice to leverage these advancements and guiding customers to deeper, innovative usage, you achieve sustained growth and a thriving services practice. This approach creates an enduring, valuable services practice, powered by Google Cloud, that supports customers throughout their entire journey.

We’re committed to supporting partner success. Connect with your Partner Development Manager and utilize Partner Network Hub resources to strategize your services growth. Let’s grow and innovate, together.