Google Cloud has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire data management firm Actifio. 

The purchase is likely to mean that Google Cloud may start offering more services to its enterprise customers. Actifio is well respected within the cloud industry as a provider of backup and data recovery solutions and the new partnership could turn Google Cloud into a major player within the business continuity space.

Little else is known about the deal at the moment, including how much Google is likely to have paid, but a couple of years ago, Actifio was valued at $1.8 billion, so it’s safe to say that the acquisition is a sizable one.

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When disaster strikes

Actifio helps its customers achieve increased business availability by making backup and disaster recovery simpler and faster. Workloads are automatically protected and significant efficiencies are brought to data storage, transfer, and recovery.

With more and more information being held by businesses, data has become one of the most valuable commodities that many organizations hold. This, in turn, has meant that cybercriminals have begun targeting business data, particularly through ransomware attacks.

Perhaps Google Cloud has foreseen that business continuity is likely to be a major growth area, with many organizations desperate to keep their data safe and their services running. Acquiring Actifio means that Google can better serve this growing need among its enterprise customers.

“This planned acquisition further demonstrates Google Cloud’s commitment to helping enterprises protect workloads on-premises and in the cloud,” Brad Calder, Vice President of Engineering at Google Cloud, explained. 

“As organizations across industries sharpen their disaster preparedness strategies and infrastructure resiliency, Actifio’s business continuity solutions will help Google Cloud customers prevent data loss and downtime due to external threats, network failures, human errors and other disruptions.”

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