Is Google Cloud Thinking of Buying Nutanix?

Google is no stranger to the concept of strategic acquisitions. Over the years, the search and computing giant has made various crucial purchasing decisions to help it deliver a higher quality of services to customers. For instance, earlier this year, the Google Cloud team purchased Looker, the unified platform for business intelligence, data analytics, and applications. Google also announced its intentions to buy Elastifile in July. Elastifile is a provider of enterprise, scalable file storage solutions - making it a perfect addition to the Google portfolio. 

Each strategic purchase that Google has made this year and in the years before has been a deliberate attempt to push the cloud solution ahead of competitors like Microsoft and Amazon Web Services. Now, it's becoming increasingly likely that we may see a new acquisition on the horizon for Google. According to analyst firm Trefis, Google may be thinking of spending around $9 billion on Nutanix.

For those who don't know, Nutanix is currently a market leader in the hyper-converged infrastructure environment. According to Trefis, the buy could be a crucial step forward in helping Google to enhance its hybrid cloud offerings in the years to come - although it's hard to know whether this is just speculation or not. 

Does It Make Sense for Google to Buy Nutanix?

At this time, it's impossible for us to say whether Google will genuinely buy Nutanix, or whether this is just one of the many stories that enter into the rumor mill each month. However, Trefis seems relatively sure of the potential of the acquisition, saying that Nutanix would fit well with Google's hybrid cloud strategy. The analyst also highlighted the fact that critical executives associated with each vendor would potentially be able to fast-track the detail. 

For instance, Sunil Potti is a former Chief Product Officer for Nutanix who now acts as part of the Google Cloud team. Additionally, the Vice President and CTO of Google Cloud is currently on the board of directors over at Nutanix too. 

It does make some sense that Google would want to accelerate its investment into hybrid cloud solutions this year, particularly since Thomas Kurian took the helm as CEO and claimed that he was committed to making the cloud more valuable than ever to enterprises. Hybrid cloud investments are one of the primary ways that Google can make itself stand out to more enterprise companies. 

The impact of increased options when it comes to new and improved hybrid technology between the companies, coupled with the added expertise that the personnel in the Nutanix team could bring to Google could be a great opportunity for the cloud brand. 

Doesn't Google Excel at Hybrid Cloud Already

You might be wondering why Google would bother considering adding more strings to its hybrid cloud bow, particularly when it has an updated relationship with VMWare and a powerful solution in the form of the Google Anthos platform. The simple answer is that it takes a lot of work to stand out in today's cloud environment. Google might have a relationship with VMWare in place, but the same can be said for Amazon Web Services and Microsoft too. 

Additionally, according to the analysts over at Trefis, Google Cloud will still need to invest in an established player within the data center market if it wants to achieve its goal of connecting with the private clouds too. A potential acquisition from Google would also mean positive things for the Nutanix brand too. After all, the company has been seeing a slight slowdown in its sales volumes lately, thanks to salesforce issues and the complex migration into a subscription-based sales model. Although Nutanix is still doing better financially than estimates predicted, there's a chance that it could benefit from taking advantage of new strategies for growth while it's still ahead. 

When asked to comment on the new rumors about a potential purchase, the CEO of Nutanix, Dheeraj Pan said that it's all just speculation, and the brand won't comment on that. However, Pan did say that Nutanix is working with all three of the hyper-scale cloud brands closely. 

Watch this space for more insights, news, and updates into what's happening in the Google Cloud and G-Suite environment.