Google Cloud has scored two major wins in the cloud war, with Rite and Wayfair choosing the number three cloud provider.
Google is working hard to expand its cloud market share and is a popular choice among developers and companies wanting a hybrid cloud option. Interestingly, Wayfair chose Google in an effort to move away from a hybrid deployment to a unified cloud strategy.
“Google Cloud is a key part of our innovation strategy to adapt and thrive in a landscape that shifts as quickly as consumer preferences do,” said Fiona Tan, chief technology officer, Wayfair. “The complete migration of our data center operations to Google Cloud is an essential part of ensuring Wayfair’s long-term competitiveness and resilience. With this partnership, we’re better able to handle sudden traffic, empower our engineers with more autonomy, and use AI and ML to create a better shopping experience for our customers.”
In the case of Rite Aid, the drug store chain is turning to Google Cloud in an effort to modernize its operations. The company will be moving key applications to Google Cloud’s Anthos. Anthos provides a managed platform for application deployment. The platform will allow all of Rite Aid’s roughly 2,350 locations to have on-site cloud capabilities.
“The power of pharmacies, and the important role pharmacists play in the health of their communities, greatly expanded during COVID. Realizing that potential means making strategic investments in technology that can truly help our customers and maximize the capabilities of our pharmacists,” said Justin Mennen, executive vice president and chief digital and technology officer at Rite Aid. “Google Cloud’s solutions are uniquely positioned to run at each pharmacy location to allow our store teams to help our customers to achieve whole health for life.”
According to Google’s Carrie Tharp, VP of Retail and Consumer Solutions, both companies will benefit from Google Cloud’s analytics, machine learning, and AI solutions:
Rite Aid’s pharmacists and Wayfair’s software developers benefit from the ways Google Cloud’s data analytics, AI, and machine-learning (ML) technologies can maximize their time and talents. And, as we emerge from the crisis phase of COVID-19, retailers across the industry are employing the hard-won lessons from that tumultuous period to new challenges of limited staffing, unreliable supply chains, and sustaining growth.