Google recently announced a new licensing option called Flex Agreements, allowing customers to migrate their workloads to the cloud with no up-front commitments. As part of this new licensing option, Google Cloud customers still get access to unique incentives (credits, discounts, services).
Previously, customers had to make an upfront commitment, such as signing a considerable multi-year Google Cloud agreement to benefit from certain incentives such as cloud credits or discounts based on monthly spending or committed use. Google's Committed Use Discounts (CUDs) are an instance of such incentives, offering reduced prices in exchange for committing to utilizing a minimum amount of cloud resources for a specific period.
In addition to Flex Agreements, Google also intends to provide flexibility for its customers to choose features and functionality based on their stages of cloud adoption and the complexity of their business requirements. The company will release new product pricing editions—Standard, Enterprise, and Enterprise Plus—in their cloud portfolio in the upcoming quarters.
Enterprise Plus will grant access to various services, such as compute, storage, networking, and analytics, with advanced features, including high availability, multi-region support, regional failover, and disaster recovery.
Next to the top-tier Enterprise Plus, the Enterprise level provides customers with various features designed to accommodate workloads requiring high scalability, flexibility, and reliability. Finally, the Standard tier includes easy-to-use managed services that come with all essential capabilities and are designed to be cost-efficient. The services, including autoscaling, are optimized to meet the core workload requirements of customers.
Kelly Ducourty, a vice president of cloud GTM strategy and operations and SMB Sales at Google, stated in a LinkedIn post:
I am excited to announce that this week, we introduced Flex Agreements - a new type of agreement that offers targeted incentives for customers to migrate workloads and grow on Google Cloud, even without a commit. This is an exciting alternative for businesses that aren’t ready to make a multi-year commitment, and I can’t wait to see how our customers benefit!
In addition, Ducourty, and Joe Matz, vice president of business planning and pricing, wrote in a Google blog post:
Every organization is on its own unique cloud journey. To help, we’re developing new ways for customers to consume and pay for Google Cloud services. We’re doing this by removing barriers to entry, aligning cost to consumption, and providing contractual and product flexibility.
Lastly, Holger Mueller, principal analyst and vice president at Constellation Research Inc., told InfoQ:
As the distanced #3 in the cloud, Google keeps pushing the big two competitors - second billing, 100% green, Anthos, verticals ... All initiatives AWS and Microsoft had to respond. Now Kurian and team target where it matters most in an economy facing headwinds - the budget. New pricing that gives away discounts as you go is innovative and will be welcomed by enterprises. If it works, we will see when AWS and Azure respond.