The AI Era has entered a new phase: deployment. Much of the recent activity among the Cloud Wars Top 10 is focused on helping organizations operationalize their AI investments and move beyond experimentation.
Now, Google Cloud has partnered with IBM to establish a new Google Cloud Practice designed to streamline and accelerate AI deployments.
The initiative combines two key IBM strengths: deep industry expertise and the AI-powered development and deployment platform, IBM Consulting Advantage. These capabilities are being integrated with Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, cybersecurity expertise, and data tools.
From AI Pilots to Production
The new practice will mobilize thousands of Google Cloud-certified IBM consultants and forward-deployed engineers to help organizations not only operationalize AI but also modernize legacy infrastructure to support this new wave of technology. IBM is also expanding a portfolio of AI agents built on the IBM Consulting Advantage platform and optimized for Gemini Enterprise.
These agents can be deployed across a wide range of use cases in sectors including banking, government, retail, telecommunications, energy, security, insurance, and life sciences.
“This partnership significantly expands the pool of expert Google Cloud consultants in the market to meet surging demand for AI,” said Kevin Ichhpurani, President of Global Partner Ecosystem at Google Cloud.
“By combining Google’s agentic infrastructure with IBM’s deep industry expertise and proven delivery frameworks, we are ensuring joint customers can move beyond pilots to deploy and govern production-grade AI agents across their entire cloud environment.”
Deeper Integration
The new practice represents a far more integrated relationship between IBM Consulting and Google Cloud. Consultants will be able to build and govern AI agents on Google Cloud infrastructure, helping clients move from experimentation to enterprise-scale deployment.
The practice will focus on several core areas, including helping IBM Consulting clients build the foundations for meaningful AI deployments by leveraging Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform and BigQuery.
There is also a strong emphasis on industry-specific solutions for sectors such as aerospace, financial services, government, healthcare, and telecommunications. From a cybersecurity perspective, the partnership will focus on modernization through AI-driven tools while supporting hybrid cloud environments, particularly for highly regulated industries.
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IBM’s watsonx capabilities and Google Cloud’s AI technologies will be combined to support more intelligent automation and decision-making. The expanded partnership will also touch on operational resilience, governance, and security as organizations deploy AI across increasingly complex cloud environments.
Regarding customer impact, I’ll close with a quote from Javier Olaizola Casín, Global Managing Partner Hybrid Cloud and Data, IBM:
If I’m being candid, what personally excites me, it’s the moment when a client sees it all come together. The modernized infrastructure, the data foundation, the AI running on top of it. That’s when the conversation shifts from what’s possible to what’s next. The problems are hard, the stakes are real but with Google Cloud as a partner, we have a platform and capability to solve them at scale in a way that genuinely moves the needle for clients.
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