Google LLC today inaugurated the Cloud Acceleration Program, an initiative that will provide technical resources and consulting services to enterprises looking to move their SAP SE deployments to the search giant’s cloud platform.

Germany-based SAP’s back-office applications power key business processes at thousands of organizations worldwide, including a big percentage of the Fortune 500. Those companies are shifting their technology spending to the cloud in line with the broader trend in the market. However, SAP applications are often challenging to migrate because of their complexity, which is the adoption barrier Google’s Cloud Acceleration Program aims to tackle.

The Alphabet Inc. subsidiary is offering companies blueprints for setting up SAP software in Google Cloud, technical support and employee training “accelerators.” It’s topping it all off with consulting services from nearly a dozen consulting partners. 

The services on tap include pre-migration assessments, prototyping and training. Some of the consultancies Google has brought aboard the program operate labs that will enable enterprises’ in-house technologists to gain hands-on experience in running SAP software off-premises.

Outsourcing giant HCL Technologies Ltd., one of the participating  partners, recently announced plans for a 5,000-employee division that will focus solely on helping enterprises adopt Google Cloud. Deloitte Ltd. set up a similar business unit last year. The latter firm is taking its participation in the Cloud Acceleration Program a step further and plans to launch machine learning tools to extend SAP applications deployed on Google Cloud.

“By combining Google Cloud technologies with services and offerings from our partners, customers will benefit from greater innovation, operational efficiency and risk mitigation along their cloud journey,” Rob Enslin, Google Cloud’s head of customer operations, wrote in a blog post.

The program is part of an effort by the company to boost cloud revenues by making it easier for companies to move their workloads to its platform. In the same spirit, Google earlier this week announced the acquisition of CloudSimple Inc., a startup whose software provides the ability to shift on-premises applications powered by VMware Inc.’s hypervisor to Google Cloud without any major changes.

Partners play an equally big role in the strategy of the search giant’s top rivals. Amazon Web Services Inc. provides disclosed training, cloud credits and even capital to firms that help enterprise customers adopt its solutions, while Microsoft Corp. runs a similarly broad partner program for Azure.

Image: Google