Data and analytics platform provider Databricks has launched availability on Google Cloud, adding to its Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure offerings.
The jointly developed service provides a simple, open lakehouse platform for data engineering, data science, analytics, and machine learning, in the words of Hiral Jasani, Databricks partner marketing manager, in a blog post.
This means Databricks is tightly integrated with Google Cloud compute, storage, analytics, and management products. Examples include containers – Databricks on Google Cloud being ‘the first fully container-based Databricks runtime on any cloud’ – and optimised connections to Google BigQuery.
The move means Databricks is now integrated with the three largest hyper-scale clouds – although the devil is in the detail. Whereas the partnership with Google Cloud – and AWS – is more typical, Databricks’ Azure integration is a first-party Microsoft service; in other words, sold and supported directly by Microsoft. Azure Databricks is a platform ‘optimized for the Azure cloud services platform’, as the documentation puts it.
Customer demand for the Google partnership is noticeable, however. Jasani noted a leading global fast food brand – and Google Cloud customer – who is looking to build and deploy solutions around churn reduction and behavioural segmentation for ‘about a dozen global markets’ by the end of this year. “By architecting a global data platform with Databricks, they will provide each regional business with a choice for their public cloud platform,” wrote Jasani.
“The launch of Databricks on Google Cloud is a win-win for customers,” Jasani added. “The tight integration of Databricks with Google Cloud’s analytics and AI products delivers a broad range of capabilities – with more to come.”
Even in the attractive big data space, Databricks stands out as a funding darling. Earlier this month, the company closed a $1 billion series G investment, pegging a $28bn valuation. The round was led by Franklin Templeton, a new investor, while AWS also participated. In October 2019, the company’s valuation was at $6bn after a $400m series F round.
Databricks was ranked #5 in the most recent Forbes Cloud 100, featuring the top 100 privately held cloud computing companies.
