Google added another small piece to its cloud platform today with the acquisition of video streaming company Anvato Inc.

Anvato sells software that automates encoding, editing, publishing and distribution of video for companies such as NBCUniversal, Univision, Fox Sports and Media General. Google, whose cloud business still trails far behind those of Amazon.com and Microsoft, clearly hopes to get more media companies to host and serve video on its cloud. That’s key because as more video moves from traditional television to online, media companies will need to look to the cloud.

As Belwadi Srikanth, a senior product manager for the Google Cloud Platform, put it in a blog post:

The cloud is transforming the way video content is created and distributed to an array of connected devices, as well as the way users engage with this content. And in recent years, the adoption of over-the-top (OTT) technologies has emerged as a critical platform for delivering rich audio, video and other media via the Internet.

With OTT adoption rapidly accelerating, the Cloud Platform and Anvato teams will work together to deliver cloud solutions that help businesses in the media and entertainment industry scale their video infrastructure efforts and deliver high-quality, live video and on-demand content to consumers on any device — be it their smartphone, tablet or connected television.

Broadcasters and other media companies may be ready to consider alternatives to their current providers. Netflix, for instance, uses Amazon Web Services, but it also competes with Amazon’s video service. But Google’s not alone in courting new customers. IBM created a cloud video service early this year after buying Ustream.

The Anvato acquisition is the latest in a string of cloud-related acquisitions for Google in the last couple of years, most notably the $380 million purchase of Bebop last November, when founder Diane Greene was also hired as senior vice president in charge of Google’s cloud and enterprise operations. Google has continued shopping around since then.

Google has accelerated its push to expand its cloud since Greene arrived, with some success, getting a $400 million to $600 million contract from Apple for cloud services. Greene said recently that she thinks the cloud can support a large proportion of the information technology industry.

When the deal closes, the Anvato team will join the Google Cloud Platform team. Google didn’t reveal how much it paid for the company, which has raised $2.6 million since launching in 2007.

Image from Anvato