Google Cloud has announced that it will be joining a new alliance of data analytics companies that aims to support businesses and governments in recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.
Emer2gent is set to combine traditional economic, business, travel and retail data sets with behaviour and sentiment data, in order to facilitate the global economic recovery from the downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It describes itself as “an alliance of partners sharing data and expertise to build economic resilience”.
Led by Rolls-Royce, it already counts IBM, Leeds Institute for Data Analytics, The Data City, Truata, and ODI Leeds as its members.
Google Cloud is the latest to join the group and will provide its Public Datasets and BigQuery cloud data warehouse, which aims to assist businesses in making informed decisions quickly and ease their transformation.
Google Cloud’s manufacturing and industrial lead for the UK and Ireland, Rajh Das, said that the company is “proud to be involved in such an important project as we all work together to support business globally during these extraordinary times”.
IBM is to provide its public cloud, the IBM Cloud Pak for Data, and high-performance computing, as well as subject matter expertise from its Data Science Elite team.
“IBM looks forward to joining our existing partners and valued clients in this initiative,” said Andrew Brown, general manager for IBM Cloud & Cognitive Software Europe. “It is hoped IBM’s contribution will help accomplish the identification of proven use cases, to assist where recovery indicators emerge for countries, governments, state agencies and supporting companies to best respond to the next phase of the improvement in the pandemic.”
Caroline Gorski, global director for R2 Data Labs, the Rolls-Royce data innovation catalyst behind the alliance, expressed her hopes for the swift recovery of the world economy.
“Our data innovation community can help do this and is at its best when it comes together for the common good,” she said. “People, businesses and governments around the world have changed the way they spend, move, communicate and travel because of COVID-19 and we can use that insight, along with other data, to provide the basis for identifying what new insights and trends may emerge that signify the world’s adjustment to a new normal after the pandemic.”
Google Cloud’s announcement comes a month after the news that the company had joined Lloyd’s digital transformation project which aims to upgrade the UK bank’s IT systems to compete in the increasingly digitised world of finance.