Business VoIP Featured Article

Google Partners with RingCentral to Bring RTC to Apps

June 28, 2016

By Paula Bernier, Executive Editor, TMC

Despite Google’s attempts to infringe on Microsoft’s position in the cloud and online collaboration, Microsoft is hanging firm, according to a recent report by The Register. The U.K. publication sites a Bitglass report indicating Google Apps deployments were 29 percent last year and are just 26 percent this year, while Microsoft Office 365 deployments are on the rise.


Nonetheless, Google continues its push into the online communications and productivity arena. One of the search giant’s more recent endeavors on this front involves its new partnership with VoIP outfit RingCentral, which is also a Microsoft partner.

Business VoIP company RingCentral – which  offers integration with Microsoft Outlook and Skype for Business – last week introduced RingCentral Office Google Edition, which packages Google Android, Chrome, Docs, Gmail, and Hangouts, with unlimited storage for $30 – or $20 for existing Google customers. It is available as a plug-in and accessible via the Google Apps Marketplace.

This solution leverages WebRTC technology to enable users to make online calls from within Google’s apps. Agosto, a Google for Work partner, will be the first channel partner to sell this solutions; others will follow.

“Google’s impact on the enterprise is significant as more CIOs and IT decision makers make the jump to the cloud and move away from legacy on-premise infrastructure,” said Vlad Shmunis, chairman, founder, and CEO of RingCentral. “Our recognition as a leader in the Gartner 2015 Magic Quadrant for UCaaS Worldwide and our status in the ‘Recommended for Google Apps’ program can give enterprises the confidence in RingCentral as a high quality, reliable, and secure communications solution. Together with Google, we look forward to helping enterprises maximize their cloud investments with an unprecedented, integrated communications and productivity solution.”  

Google recently named board member and former VMware CEO Diane B. Greene to lead its cloud business. Google will also be acquiring Greene’s development platform business, bebop. Naming Greene to run its cloud business, according to most accounts, is a sign that Google plans to make a serious go of it in the business cloud arena – a space now dominated by Amazon with AWS and Microsoft with Azure. Although, Alphabet/Google offers a variety of cloud services and business productivity tools, the company is generally considered to be lagging that of the other big cloud players.  




Edited by Maurice Nagle

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