Google LLC is partnering with VMware Inc. to make it easier for enterprises to run that company’s virtualization workloads on its public cloud infrastructure.

The aim of the partnership revealed today, first reported by Bloomberg, is to help companies run VMware’s vSphere virtualization software and networking tools on Google Cloud Platform more easily. To do so, Google’s cloud will now support VMware Cloud Foundation, which is a system for deploying and running hybrid clouds.

The service is being offered by a third-party provider called CloudSimple Inc. With the service, CloudSimple will help companies migrate their VMware workloads to a VMware software-defined data center running in Google’s cloud, providing full, native access to other VMware tools including NSX-T, vCenter and vSan.

VMware’s virtualization software is widely used by enterprises to help them combine different workloads on the same servers, which can help networks to run more efficiently and save on costs. But with many enterprises looking to ditch their on-premises data centers for public clouds such as Google’s, VMware needs to find ways to stay relevant, hence its own embrace of those platforms.

Google said that under the partnership, it will be the first port of call for customers looking for support, though it will work closely with CloudSimple to deliver this.

Thomas Kurian, chief executive officer of Google Cloud, told Bloomberg the partnership would enable customers to bring “all of their existing VMware tools, policies, practices from a private cloud on premise to Google Cloud.” He added that the deal was a response to customer requests to make it easy to protect their investments in VMware.

Constellation Research Inc. analyst Holger Mueller told SiliconANGLE it was important for Google to help customers move VMware workloads to its cloud, because almost every enterprise relies on its virtualization software.

“VMware support matters to executives because they can move traditional loads closer to the next-generation apps they’ve built in the public cloud,” the analyst said. “And data proximity and data gravity matter for compliance and performance, which is a key factor in determining where to move public cloud loads to.”

Just as important for Google, the deal also means it will be able to host new workloads that can help to expand its hybrid cloud strategy, Wikibon analyst Dave Vellante told SiliconANGLE.

“You need two fundamental starter ingredients to participate in hybrid cloud,” Vellante said. “Namely, a real cloud, and VMware. Google needs VMware, while VMware gets to expand the scope of its cloud partners.”

Vellante added that the deal is similar to the one VMware struck with Microsoft earlier this year. That resulted in a joint service called Azure VMware Solutions, which enables enterprises to run VMware workloads natively on Azure and also uses CloudSimple’s platform.

However, Wikibon analyst Stu Miniman noted the Google/VMware partnership isn’t quite as extensive as the older integration between VMware and Amazon Web Services Inc., which was first announced back in 2016.

“There will be some that jump to an incorrect conclusion that this is bad news for VMware Cloud on AWS,” Miniman said. “VMware Cloud on AWS is a deep partnership that required extensive engineering work and is not going away.”

Still, he said, today’s deal was a smart move for both companies, since VMware needs to be relevant everywhere and it now has partnerships with the top three public clouds and lots of service providers.

“Google needs to work better with enterprises and so VMware is one of the best possible partners to work with,” Miniman added. “I’d like to see what differentiation will be delivered in order to make good on their commitment to ‘making Google Cloud the best place to run VMware workloads.'”

The differentiation isn’t immediately clear, but Kurian told Bloomberg that one of the obvious advantages is that those who choose to go with Google Cloud will be able to access the company’s wide range of artificial intelligence, machine learning and analytics tools. They’ll also be able to deploy their apps to each region where Google has data centers, starting in the U.S.

Mueller added that ease of migration and operational maintenance would also be a significant factor for the main cloud providers as they look to attract VMware workloads. But it remains to be seen if Google will offer any advantages in that respect.

No official launch date has been set, but the companies said the new “Google Cloud VMware Solution by CloudSimple” will be available on the Google Cloud Marketplace before the end of the year.

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