Google Reaches 10-Year Deal on Cloud, Travel With Sabre

Google signed a 10-year deal with travel-software provider Sabre Corp., a key win for the search giant in the competitive cloud-computing market.Sabre will pay Google to handle parts of its information-technology system and for data-analytics tools. Additionally, the companies agreed to collaborate on online travel services, a sign of Google leaning on its massive consumer business to lure enterprise clients.Sabre and Alphabet Inc.’s Google announced the partnership on Tuesday as a “significant” one, but declined to share financial terms.
The contract validates Google’s recent focus on selling directly to particular industries, such as health and hospitality, Thomas Kurian, the chief executive officer of Google’s cloud unit, said in an interview. The cloud market, where a handful of technology giants rent computing space over the internet, is locked in a pricing war. But Kurian described the Sabre deal as an example of Google pitching its data prowess to companies hunting for operational efficiency.
Historically, when people look at cloud, they see it purely as about cost efficiency,” he said. “It’s also about giving people better insights for their business.