Why Google Cloud Fee Changes Will Help Vs. AWS, Microsoft: 66degrees President

Ben Kessler, president of 66degrees, explains why Google Cloud’s move to eliminate data transfer fees will boost its market share, as well as how 66degrees is witnessing a 600 percent spike in AI sales growth.

Google Cloud’s standout AI partner 66degrees is bullish about Google’s AI strategy and its recent decision to stop charging data transfer fees when customers want to exit Google Cloud and switch to a competitor such as AWS or Microsoft.

Ben Kessler, president of 66degrees, told CRN that Google Cloud’s decision to eliminate data transfer fees reaffirms Google’s commitment to “being the most open and customer-friendly hyperscaler,” while also allowing the Google Cloud Platform to further differentiate itself from the competition.

“It allows Google to continue to distance itself from competitors by offering customers AI, data, and cloud solutions that don’t have license-based and other onerous fee structures,” said Kessler.

“As an example, last year we helped a number of clients move from Microsoft SQL Server databases, which are contracted through a license-based Microsoft fee model, to Google Cloud SQL with consumption-based pricing,” he said. “Saving each client millions on licensing costs annually.”

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Kessler says Google’s move to become the first large public cloud company to eliminate the burdensome and costly exit fees will drive more business away from other cloud companies that have fees that lock in customers.

“One case study just on fire right now is modernizing databases. So moving from legacy Microsoft databases, where there’s a license attached, over to Google Cloud where you pay as you consume,” said 66degrees’ President.

66degrees Growth AI Sales by 600 Percent; Signs Google Cloud GenAI Partnership

66degrees is a longtime Chicago-based Google Cloud Premier Partner that is a top national data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML) solution provider. In 2022, 66degrees acquired fellow Google Cloud partner Pandera Systems to create one of the largest pure-play Google Cloud services partners in North America with over 600 Google Cloud certifications.

“If you look only at our AI revenue, it was north of a 6X growth in 2023 [compared to 2022],” said Kessler. “We’re excited about the Google partner ecosystem and Google Cloud in the sense of its incredible growth with AI. Here’s the beauty: people need a tour guide to help them get through this and manage through this. Then they need somebody helping maintain those applications. … We have a tremendous opportunity right now.”

In June, 66degrees signed a partnership with Google Cloud to develop new generative AI solutions, including the development of best practices for building AI and ML solutions. The AI company has already been incorporating GenAI into its customer projects and owns a top-notch data science team that’s building AI solutions using Google’s foundation models and GenAI capabilities via Vertex AI.

“We believe that Google is a leader in AI,” Kessler said. “And to be helping people move some of their applications and build bespoke applications on Google, there isn’t a better place for a partner to be.”

In an interview with CRN, Kessler explains Google’s AI market differentiation versus the likes of AWS and Microsoft, why Google Cloud’s elimination of transfer fees will help them grow market share and how 66degees is growing AI sales at a blistering pace.

What do you think about Google Cloud’s move to not charge customers exiting data transfer fees? Will this help versus cloud competitors like AWS and Microsoft?

The decision to eliminate data transfer fees reaffirms its commitment to being the most open and customer-friendly hyperscaler, while allowing GCP to further differentiate itself from competitors in a few ways.

First, it lowers one barrier to entry for customers interested in using GCP for AI and data workloads, two areas where GCP is a leader amongst hyperscalers.

Customers will be more willing to try GCP for their AI and data workloads if the fees are lower. This should lead to revenue growth over time as long as GCP can deliver on, and continue to expand, its competitive advantage in AI and data.

Second, it allows Google to continue to distance itself from competitors by offering customers AI, data, and cloud solutions that don’t have license-based and other onerous fee structures.

As an example, last year 66degrees helped a number of clients move from MSSQL databases, which are contracted through a license-based Microsoft fee model, to Google Cloud SQL with consumption-based pricing—saving each client millions on licensing costs annually. The latest change to Google’s pricing approach will drive more business away from hyperscalers with fees that lock in customers and towards GCP’s cloud, data, and AI offerings that offer customer-friendly pricing.

Finally, it speaks to the next wave of digital transformation that we see around the corner. Many of the CIOs and CTOs 66degrees advises anticipate spending more on cloud in 2024, and this change puts Google in a great position to—instead of focusing on maximizing fees—partner with customers over the long-run of their cloud and data transformation journey.

What does Google dropping its data transfer exiting fees mean for the partner community and 66degress?

We expect it to drive growth for 66degrees in 2024. We are a leader in AI-led solutions, having more AI-led solutions in production than any other partner our size.

Google’s decision will drive more enterprises to try GCP for GenAI, CCAI, and other AI use cases. Having deep expertise with use case exploration and bringing AI use cases to production, the increase in clients on GCP building AI-led solutions will drive demand for our AI expertise.

66degrees differentiates itself by meeting clients where they are in their data transformation journey. We do this by offering four core services that guide clients along each step of the journey: Cloud Engineering, Data Platform Modernization, Analytics and Visualization, and AI/ML.

As Google customers move additional workloads to the cloud with this new pricing, we are equally ready to guide the client who needs to migrate their on-prem data center to Google Cloud; the client who wants to launch embedded dashboards that change employee and customer behavior in their retail stores; and the client who wants to reshape their customer experience with a GenAI chatbot.

Similar to Google’s renewed commitment to its customers, we have found that a relentless commitment to client success over the course of their journey leads to a long-term partnership with our clients.
Finally, we differentiate ourselves by offering Cloud Evolve, an offering that provides 24/7 managed services and sprint-based capacity allowing a client to accelerate their cloud backlog.

The increase in demand driven by Google’s new policies is and will continue to drive demand for our Cloud Evolve offering.

How much AI sales growth did you see in 2023? And why?

If you look only at our AI revenue, it was north of a 6X growth in 2023. It’s blasted off. From a personnel standpoint it’s grown more than six times, but from a delivered project revenue standpoint: it’s 6X.

AI in production is growing that revenue by 6x year over year.

We’re going to meet you where you are in your data transformation journey. That could be data in databases, right? That could also be advanced manufacturing. We have large language models we’re helping sell to our clients. That revenue has grown at or above Google Cloud growth over the course of the year.

We’re also going to help maintain your applications that you’ve moved to the cloud. That level of customer retention and customer growth is 2X of what Google Cloud has grown over the past year.

We’re excited about the Google partner ecosystem and Google Cloud in the sense of its incredible growth with AI. Here’s the beauty: people need a tour guide to help them get through this and manage through this. Then they need somebody helping maintain those applications.

What are some other hot AI opportunities 66degree’s pursuing?

Here’s the biggest secret: many, many clients don’t have their data modernized right now so that they can take advantage of AI. It’s critical right now to have your data modernized.

So many clients want the AI application. How many AI tools do we have in AI launched applications in production? It’s near 100. But what’s equally important is: how do we get people out of their data center and into the cloud?

How do we actually modernize their data, not just actually getting them into the cloud, but actually picking the right workloads to say, ‘This data workload is going on BigQuery.’ Or, ‘This database was on a legacy Microsoft license. We’re going to move this over to Google Cloud because you’re going to have ‘X’ million of cost savings and you’re going to be able to take advantage of the analytics and the AI from Google Cloud.’

We’re going to drive you into production. We’re providing 24/7 managed services. We’re there to help customers maintain that AI application and maintain that data application. AI-based tools are going to be imperfect. You’re going to need to hire Google and a consultant to build those, and somebody to help maintain and improve those as well as your business changes. We have a tremendous opportunity right now.

What are some hot GenAI use cases right now you’re seeing from customers?

One case study just on fire right now is modernizing databases. So moving from legacy Microsoft databases, where there’s a license attached, over to Google Cloud where you pay as you consume.

You’re then not locked into a Microsoft license. You’re then paying as you consume that database on cloud. We have something called Route 66, where it’s fully automated IP that allows this. It’s a lot of automation that allows clients to quickly—when those Microsoft licenses come in and are sunset, or can be sunset—you can quickly move those databases.

Why do you want to do that? First of all, you want to have cost savings and cost optimization. But you also want to run data analytics on that. Then you also want to run AI on that.

Another use case that is just on fire is, ‘How do you build a GenAI application and chatbot on top of a couple of different use cases?’ One is actually on SharePoint. How do you connect multiple different SharePoint’s and GenAI sitting on top so that your internal employees can accelerate their estimation process and quoting process.

Ultimately, now that we have multimodal GenAI capabilities, how can you have that search capability sitting on top of a photo library or videos—but it’s not just text you’re searching on. We have a photo tool that’s using AI sitting in production at this point. So we have a SharePoint GenAI sitting in production for one of our clients.

What is Google Cloud’s AI and channel partner differentiation in the market compared to Microsoft and AWS?

Number one: their DNA is AI. They have been doing AI longer, frankly, than anyone else out there. The history and legacy of a company built upon data engineers and built by engineers, allows them to have years of experience and a front run on the market.

A company built for engineers is going to have a leg up. It’s not just the history, it’s ultimately the DNA within the company. It’s an engineering company. That’s a tremendous way to have a huge leg up on the competition.

Number two: they own their future of AI. Gemini is fully Google’s. The [Google] PaLM models are fully there’s. That’s different from AWS and Anthropic. That’s different from OpenAI and Microsoft. To own the models and to own the business unit that drives your strategy allows you as a company to differentiate.

The third piece is, I think the state of their partner ecosystem allows them to grow very quickly in AI. 66degrees and a number of our peers are focused on building AI solutions. In many ways, the partner ecosystem in AWS and Microsoft is mature. The partner ecosystem is maturing in Google, but it is still forming.

[Google channel chief] Kevin [Ichhpurani] and [Google Cloud CEO] Thomas Kurian have the ability to shape that ecosystem upon an end that is not software applications or cloud migration, but on an end that is AI.

I saw this in Salesforce and I’ve seen this in AWS: you can build great hyperscalers on the backs of partners. Google has the ability to, in building their business and building partners businesses, achieve a win-win because of where they’re at. There’s a lot of new partners in the space. There’s new incentive programs. They can shape behavior of their partners which allows them to grow their AI business.