IBM and Google Cloud announced a major expansion of their strategic alliance with the launch of a new, dedicated Google Cloud Practice. This joint project aims to connect AI pilot tests with full-scale production. It’ll also help update old systems in companies, making the transition smoother.
The multi-billion-dollar services practice combines IBM’s deep horizontal industry domain knowledge and the IBM Consulting Advantage ecosystem-the company’s AI-first software delivery framework-with Google Cloud’s highly secure Gemini™ Enterprise Agent Platform, advanced data analytics, and cross-cloud cybersecurity tools.
An Army of Certified Experts for Hybrid Landscapes
Backed by an expansive pool of thousands of Google Cloud-certified IBM consultants and forward-deployed software engineers, the newly established practice provides enterprise clients with localized, end-to-end technical delivery execution. The strategic focus centers on helping global organizations safely design, deploy, and govern sophisticated AI workflows while managing infrastructure assets across complex, highly regulated hybrid cloud environments.
As part of the technical integration, IBM is constructing a specialized, out-of-the-box portfolio of industry-specific AI agents. Built directly within IBM Consulting Advantage and optimized natively for Gemini Enterprise, these functional agents target complex use cases across key verticals, including:
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In banking and insurance, automation handles risk profiling, claims, and credit checks. Telecommunications and energy use it to smooth service delivery and spot grid issues. Retail and life sciences get inventory management and data classification help. For government and public safety, it boosts agency coordination and community involvement.
Standardizing the Journey from Design to Enterprise Deployment
The partnership establishes a standardized, repeatable blueprint for enterprise-grade automation. By marrying IBM’s pre-built technical assets and reusable code patterns with Google Cloud’s low-latency agent runtime, built-in access controls, and strict structural compliance boundaries, developers can deploy production agents with enhanced speed and consistency.
To prevent critical data silos, IBM Consulting will design common, flexible interface configurations that cleanly map historical enterprise data into Gemini using an open approach. These modular pipelines can be explicitly tailored to a client’s specific multi-cloud architecture, ensuring complete data integration and making it easier to scale generative AI capabilities across corporate footprints.
“Enterprises are facing one of the most complex modernization cycles in decades,” said Mohamad Ali, Senior Vice President and Head of IBM Consulting. “By expanding our work with Google Cloud, we’re giving clients a clearer and more reliable path to scale AI across their business, combining deep industry expertise, hybrid‑cloud modernization, and an AI‑first delivery platform.”
“This partnership significantly expands the pool of expert Google Cloud consultants in the market to meet surging demand for AI,” said Kevin Ichhpurani, President, Global Partner Ecosystem at Google Cloud. “By combining Google’s agentic infrastructure with IBM’s deep industry expertise and proven delivery frameworks, we are ensuring joint customers can move beyond pilots to deploy and govern production-grade AI agents across their entire cloud environment.”
Proven Complex Infrastructure Modernization
The expanded practice builds upon a strong history of joint execution on high-stakes legacy system migrations. Notably, the two technology leaders recently finalized a massive digital overhaul for global aerospace pioneer Airbus. Working under a tight timeline, IBM consultants and Google Cloud specialists successfully migrated and separated two aerospace operational businesses into completely autonomous entities in less than 18 months. The high-velocity project involved updating more than 100 critical software systems spanning regulated engineering pipelines, factory manufacturing execution networks, and downstream customer service layers.