As the next step in our collaboration, I am excited that Rakuten Symphony has announced an OEM agreement with Google Cloud to integrate Rakuten Cloud-Native Storage software into the Google Distributed Cloud Connected Server (GDCCS) service.
As my colleague Partha Seetala, President, Rakuten Cloud at Rakuten Symphony, said in the press release: “Rakuten Cloud-Native Storage now operates as a foundational technology within Google Distributed Cloud Connected Servers, delivering carrier-grade, cloud-native storage as part of the core platform.”
This has been a long-lived and productive partnership. Since 2021, Google Cloud and our engineers have been collaborating on how to bring the stateful storage functionality of Rakuten Cloud-Native Storage into GDCCS. It’s been very unique due to the close working relationship of engineers from both companies who have been sharing details and ideas in a way that I haven’t seen before.
Rakuten Symphony has been offering a GDCCS-certified version of our storage software since 2023. But until this agreement, customers would purchase GDCCS separate from Rakuten Cloud-Native Storage, which was available on the Google Cloud Marketplace.
Now they purchase it as a single software bundle, which simplifies the purchasing process and eliminates the step of installing the software separately. And since Rakuten Symphony is one of Google’s few OEM vendors, customers know that the future of this integrated product is secure.
Rakuten Cloud-Native Storage is built on Kubernetes and offers block, file and object storage that is fast and scalable. It features secure cloning, migration and management of applications in multi-cloud environments.
Why is Rakuten Cloud-Native Storage such a good complement for GDCCS? Google Cloud is one of the industry’s most important cloud vendors. And it’s a pioneer in delivering edge cloud services that live on premises. It realized that the edge has unique needs for flexibility and scalability. By itself, Kubernetes doesn’t support stateful applications. Rakuten Cloud-Native Storage brings the support for stateful applications, allowing workflows like AI/ML, complex databases, retail analytics, and more.
The combined solution from Google Cloud and Rakuten Symphony has seen a lot of success with deployments around the world including in Fortune 500 companies. The new GDCCS solution is ideal for enterprises that are facing the need to keep data local to their operations for data sovereignty issues or for lower latency and better performance.
This OEM agreement is the result of very close cooperation between two companies that are driven to deliver a high-performance, simple-to-use edge cloud product. It is very big news for enterprises who see the benefits of a distributed cloud environment but want the performance and flexibility of stateful storage.
If that describes your company, you can find more about on Google Distributed Computing Connected Server offering here. Additional details about the agreement can be found in our press release. Feel free to reach out to my team for a conversation if you plan to be at Google Cloud Next 2026. You can find us at booth #2107.
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