Acquiring Apigee, Google Makes Another Big Cloud Move

Google is making some significant moves to bolster its presence in cloud computing. In its latest move, the company said it is acquiring cloud software company Apigee in a deal valued at about $625 million. Apigee offers API management solutions that help companies' digital services interact with applications used by customers and partners. For example, Apigee Edge is an intelligent API management solution that helps businesses manage open source APIs "to securely share services and data across multiple channels and devices."

Just this week, Google also partnered with Box to allow users of the popular Box enterprise cloud storage and content services platform edit documents with Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, while keeping them stored on  Box. Many enterprise users will applaud that move as it will give them more coud storage freedom. What is behind all these cloud moves from Google?

The answer to that question is that Diane Greene, who runs Google's cloud computing division, has been racing to raise Google's profile in enterprise computing since she joined last year. Box and Apigee are both known quantities at many enterprises.

Apigee offers a free, downloadable eBook on managing APIs, found here.  It's likely that its API management solutions could become integrated with Google Cloud Platform, and that may make the platform more open, as Apigee has squarely focused on open APIs.

Meanwhile, Google Drive has long been the default storage platform for Google Docs, and it will remain the default, but users have a choice in the cloud now. They can work in Google Docs and choose to store their documents on Box. One of the reasons this bodes well for Google is security. "With Box as the central content platform, admins can protect files wherever they go with robust security controls and reporting, customer-managed encryption, rights management, and mobile security," notes a Box post online. Indeed, Box is a standardized cloud storage solution at many enterprises.