HCL technologies and Google Cloud have announced the launch of a cloud business unit to support enterprise cloud adoption.

This is a dedicated business group within HCL that will be supported by engineering and business teams from Google Cloud.

HCL, an Indian-based IT and consultation company that spun out of the R and D division of HCL Enterprises in 1991, said it currently has more than 1,300 professionals trained on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and plans to expand this capacity to more than 5,000 specialists in the near future.

Enterprise customers will receive support in areas like containerisation, hybrid and multi-cloud, the companies claimed.

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said: “The cloud is at the heart of innovation and digital transformation for enterprises and that it unlocks new opportunities for them to tackle their most important challenges.”

“Through our partnership with HCL, we can help organizations deploy Google Cloud broadly and at scale, and move their most critical, data-intensive workloads to GCP.”

Under this joint investment, customers will be able to migrate SAP workloads to the Google Cloud Platform, deploy Hybrid and multi-cloud with Google Cloud’s Anthos, and adopt AI and machine learning services in areas such as e-commerce, supply chain and marketing.

“HCL and Google have a deep and long-standing relationship, and this new business unit is a strategic step forward in our partnership,” said C Vijayakumar, CEO of HCL.

“I am confident that the Google Cloud Business Unit will accelerate the execution of digital transformation of global organisations as well as incubate new IP and solutions that will redefine the market.”

The unit will also provide details on using Anthos, data and analytics, AI, collaboration with G Suite and more.

This renewed investment in Google’s cloud arm has dented its overall earnings, with the tech giant missing analysts estimates for its third-quarter by about $1.7 billion.