Dive Brief:
- AWS and Google Cloud launched a joint multicloud collaboration Sunday, allowing customers an easier way to connect the cloud platforms. The effort, currently in preview, marks the start of a multicloud networking product that will include Microsoft Azure in 2026, AWS announced at its re:Invent conference.
- The partnership will help businesses operate more open cloud environments through AWS Interconnect - multicloud and Google Cloud’s Cross-Cloud Interconnect. The multicloud network will let users shift from manually establishing cloud connections to deploying a cloud-native experience. It also introduces an open specification for network interoperability.
- The collaboration “represents a fundamental shift in multicloud connectivity,” said Robert Kennedy, VP of network services at AWS, in a press release. “Customers no longer need to worry about any heavy lifting to create their desired connectivity. When they need multicloud connectivity, it’s ready to activate in minutes with a simple point and click.”
Dive Insight:
The collaboration between AWS and Google indicates heightened awareness among hyperscalers and cloud providers that enterprises are shifting to hybrid cloud environments to support AI adoption.
The technology demands seamless data access, making a hybrid cloud model a differentiator for adoption success, said Nicolas Sekkaki, global cloud practice leader at Kyndryl, in a November press release announcing the company’s 2025 Cloud Readiness Report.
The report found 84% of cloud leaders intentionally opt for multiple clouds – something that has not escaped cloud providers’ notice. As businesses adopt multicloud architectures, the need for interoperability becomes even greater, AWS and Google Cloud said in their multicloud collaboration announcement.
For Google in particular, often the “third cloud in the enterprise,” partnering with AWS makes it easier to get in the door, said Forrester Principal Analyst Lee Sustar.
The move also puts pressure on Oracle and other cloud providers to adopt the open API that AWS and Google Cloud have put forward, Sustar said.
“After years of avoiding the term ‘multicloud’ while releasing a stream of smaller-scale integrations with rivals, AWS is now leveraging its market share to muscle the industry into making its approach a de facto standard,” Sustar said in an email to CIO Dive.
AWS Interconnect - multicloud allows companies like Salesforce to build critical bridges to Google Cloud, Jim Ostrognai, SVP of software engineering at Salesforce, said in the announcement.
Salesforce’s support of the initiative also strengthens AWS by including Google Cloud “as a competitive bulwark against Microsoft Azure in the race for AI-native cloud dominance,” Sustar said.
AWS and Google Cloud are just the latest providers to collaborate on cloud interoperability. AI data cloud vendor Snowflake partnered with German software vendor SAP earlier this year to connect Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud to the SAP Business Data Cloud.
The collaboration aimed to combine Snowflake’s agentic AI capabilities with SAP’s critical business data.
