Google launches new initiatives for Google Apps, cloud credits for startups in India

Google announced the launch of two new initiatives to further fuel its momentum in India in an aim to equip Indian enterprises and startups with Google Apps and cloud services. Google will now cover the fees of Google Apps for any business locked into an enterprise agreement (EA) with another provider until its contract runs out. Google will also chip in on some of the deployment costs to set companies up for success with one of the Google for Work partners. Once the current EA is up, Google will offer a contract with no additional traps. As per estimates, this will help most businesses with basic EAs and no dependencies to potentially unlock savings of up to 70 percent by switching to Google Apps for Work. Bringing the Google cloud platform to India’s startup community, Google also announced its plan to offer 1,000 Indian startups with up to $20,000 (approximately Rs 13,23,900) each in free credits for Google Cloud services starting in 2016. This will help startups in India who are held back by a lack of computing to power, build, deploy and scale the next possible innovation on the web respectively. Speaking at the launch of these initiatives, Amit Singh, President, Google For Work, said “With the second largest developer population in the world, India is poised to be home to next generation of global software firms. We’re committed to partner these next gen companies and enterprises as a trusted provider of affordable, collaborative and easy to use productivity and cloud computing tools to help them succeed. Over the last few years, we have gained tremendous momentum in helping companies go Google in India and we’re confident that with these new initiatives, we will further bring down the barriers for companies to make the switch to Google Apps.” Mohit Pande, Country Head, Google for Work India said, “Google already powers the IT and cloud computing of a range of Indian enterprises from well-known companies like Hero Motocorp and Bombay Dyeing to Indian-born multinationals like Welspun Group as well as the majority of leading startups in India. “We are excited to work with our current and soon-to-be customers to continue building the future of work in India. With the Enterprise Agreement offer and Cloud Platform credits for startups, we hope to see Indian businesses continue to rise.”