The number of edge cloud use cases that can bring significant value to enterprises is growing every day as business leaders understand how edge cloud can make their critical business processes more efficient.
This is one of several insights that came from a fireside chat featuring Elie Tabchouri, Director of Google Distributed Cloud (GDC), EMEA, and myself, moderated by James Dartnell, Senior Director, Corporate Communications at Rakuten Symphony.
The conversation centered around our companies’ shared vision for the future of cloud computing, the evolution of distributed cloud infrastructure, and a newly expanded global partnership between Google Cloud and Rakuten Symphony.
The partnership focuses on Google Distributed Cloud (GDC), an edge cloud service that combines Google Anthos, a Kubernetes-based containerization platform, and Rakuten Cloud-Native Storage software. The combined solution has pioneered the use of Kubernetes for stateful applications. (See more about our presence at Google Cloud Next 2025.)
GDC comes in two variants:
Each service caters to different enterprise needs, making distributed cloud a versatile and robust offering for industries looking to modernize without compromising.
I wanted the audience to know about our announcement about the availability of Rakuten Cloud-Native Storage via the Google Cloud Marketplace. This agreement expands our partnership globally, increasing the accessibility of cutting-edge storage solutions.
With stateful storage integrated into GDC, I’ve been amazed at the surprising diversity of use cases—from connected hospitals and smart manufacturing to casino operations and telecom networks. We’re seeing multiple use cases within the same customer, even within a single factory.
Running one centralized cloud is complex, but what happens when the infrastructure is spread across tens of thousands of locations? That’s exactly the kind of challenge GDC and Rakuten Cloud are solving.
This solution allows thousands of GDC instances to be deployed and managed from a central location. It's not just about launching on day zero; it's about ensuring ongoing upgrades, operational efficiency, and seamless scalability over day two and beyond.
This is especially relevant for industries that demand rapid responsiveness, high availability, and localized computing—think predictive maintenance in factories, AI-powered logistics, or real-time video analytics at the retail edge.
Cloud solutions are evolving from an IT-centric model focused on infrastructure management to a business-centric approach prioritizing critical outcomes.
Elie summed it up nicely: “We are trying to move the mindset now from talking about IT workloads to talking about business-critical workloads by talking to the actual people who are in charge of these businesses and trying to understand what they need and moving that onto GDC so that we enable, for example, predictive maintenance in factories.”
GDC enables powerful edge capabilities like AI inference, real-time decision-making, and GPU acceleration, helping customers move from managing systems to driving business impact.
One particularly compelling example I’ve seen is in retail. GDC allows stores to optimize stock levels and staffing based on localized buying behavior, enabling a downtown location and a suburban store to operate with completely different strategies, even within the same chain. I believe the GDC solution enables customers to sell the same thing more efficiently. This technology is an enabler, but customers care about profit. Our job is to help them monetize their operations.
Elie and I both agree that the distributed cloud journey has only just begun. “I bet we haven’t scratched the surface yet,” he said. His sentiment is easily supported by the increasing adoption of distributed cloud solutions across industries.
As more organizations discover how to move mission-critical workloads to the edge, powered by scalable, intelligent infrastructure—Google Distributed Cloud with Rakuten Cloud-Native Storage is well-positioned to be the engine of transformation.
Whether AI in factories, real-time analytics in retail, or seamless deployment across thousands of sites, the distributed cloud is no longer a concept—it’s a fast-emerging reality. And it’s redefining what’s possible for businesses around the world.
Watch my complete conversation with Elie here: https://youtu.be/wk5Bh95sDcQ?si=QNiNp-UwyCE14vvg.
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