ThoughtSpot And Google Cloud Take Their Strategic Alliance To The Next Level

With the expanded relationship ThoughtSpot’s cloud analytics software will run natively on the Google Cloud Platform, be integrated with Google’s Looker and Google Sheets technology, and sell through Google’s online marketplaces.

Data analytics software provider ThoughtSpot and Google Cloud are unveiling an expanded strategic partnership today, including building ThoughtSpot’s software-as-a-service AI-powered analytics software to run natively on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

ThoughtSpot’s search analytics software is also being integrated with Google Cloud’s Looker semantic modeling layer technology while ThoughtSpot Sheets Analytics is now integrated with several Google Cloud offerings. And ThoughtSpot’s software will be available in the Google Cloud Marketplace, Google Workspace Marketplace and BigQuery Partner Center.

The alliance is the latest case of data management and data analytics software vendors establishing “co-opetition” relationships with the major cloud hyperscalers, said Kuntal Vahalia (pictured), ThoughSpot’s senior vice president of worldwide channels and alliances, in an interview with CRN.

[Related: ThoughtSpot Offers Expanded Data Analytics Portfolio, New Consumption-Based Pricing]

“Customers are taking on the cloud modernization journey. And once they do that, we are the last mile, which is the experience layer, the modern analytics, and is AI powered. So for us, it is critical that we be focused on Google,” said Vahalia, who took over as ThoughtSpot’s global channel chief one year ago. “For Google Cloud, and the GCP in particular, we are taking a very deep, product-centric partnership.”

ThoughtSpot, which made a major pivot to cloud computing in 2020 and 2021, is one of the leading vendors in the data analytics space with its search-driven ThoughtSpot Analytics and ThoughtSpot Everywhere software. Recently the company debuted ThoughtSpot Sage, which provides natural language analytics through integration with GPT-3, the large language model from OpenAI.

ThoughtSpot’s cloud analytics running natively on GCP will be available later this year. ThoughtSpot already runs natively on Amazon Web Services and the company has an extensive relationship with data cloud giant Snowflake, which made a $20 million strategic investment in ThoughtSpot in 2021.

In the data analytics realm, Google Cloud offers its own BigQuery enterprise data warehouse service and the Looker business intelligence platform that Google Cloud acquired in 2020 for $2.6 billion. Looker includes data analytics and visualization capabilities as well as an underlying semantic modeling layer that makes it easier to access and analyze data using common business terms.

ThoughtSpot’s SaaS data analytics software will run natively on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). That will provide ThoughtSpot customers with more options for which public cloud they want to build on and use for specific use cases, according to Vahalia.

“Now we are meeting the customers where they are. If [they] are already in the GCP ecosystem, we will have native support for GCP with our SaaS product,” Vahalia said.

With the alliance ThoughtSpot is now “a first-class citizen in the Google Cloud ecosystem,” the channel executive said. “We have sources inside Google as part of this partnership who can help us navigate Google and their account base to really make sure we put the right solution in the right stack in front of our joint customers.”

Vahalia also said GCP sales representatives now have “a big incentive” to work with ThoughtSpot to co-sell its analytics software.

And Vahalia said ThoughtSpot will be establishing relationships with systems integrators to build a partner ecosystem specifically around the Google Cloud alliance.

One such partner is 66degrees, a Chicago-based solution provider and Google Premier partner that also works with ThoughtSpot. (In October 66degrees, which focused on Google Workspace and Collaboration, acquired Pandera, a data analytics consulting services provider that worked with both Google Cloud and ThoughtSpot.)

The ThoughtSpot-Google Alliance will pay off in a number of ways, said Matt Kelberman, vice president of data analytics at 66degrees, in an interview with CRN.

“There’s a few capabilities that immediately brings to the forefront the possibilities for customers,” he said. “For one, a significant number of our customers are in the Google Cloud ecosystem already. So, ultimately, [we’ll be] revisiting those customers in introducing ThoughtSpot in filling this niche that they could not previously achieve with any of their other analytics platforms. ThoughtSpot is essentially the search-based way of performing analytics. That’s where ThoughtSpot is incredibly powerful and a great addition to any analytics ecosystem.”

ThoughtSpot running natively on GCP also will allow customers to more easily take advantage of the cloud platform’s capabilities such as machine learning and pre-built advanced analytics models, Kelberman said. And he noted that with native support customers can use ThoughtSpot to analyze data within Google Cloud without having to move it off the platform, thus avoiding data egress charges.

Through the ThoughtSpot integration with Looker’s semantic layer, due later this year, users can model and transform data and define metrics, making it easier to explore and drill down into data using natural language search and create interactive dashboards that ThoughtSpot calls “Liveboards.”

Last year ThoughtSpot debuted ThoughtSpot for Sheets, a plug-in for data analysis using the Google Sheets spreadsheet application. With ThoughtSpot Sheets Analytics now integrated with Google BigQuery Connected Sheets and Looker Connected Sheets, users can tap directly into Google BigQuery and Looker data for analytical tasks.

“By expanding our relationship with Looker and Google Cloud, our customers have the freedom to select the best tools for their specific use case, from modeling data to embedding analytics to delivering self-service [analytics],” said Sumeet Arora, ThoughtSpot’s chief development officer, in a statement announcing the expanded ThoughtSpot-Google Cloud alliance.

As part of the expanded relationship ThoughtSpot’s software will soon be available in the Google Cloud Marketplace, Google Workspace Marketplace and BigQuery Partner Center. Customers can use their committed spending and credits on Google Marketplace to purchase ThoughtSpot.