Kyndryl and Google Cloud have agreed an extended partnership which will see the digital infrastructure services provider offer its clients access to Google’s AI tools, including its Gemini large language models.
The companies have been working together since 2021, and the new phase of the partnership will focus on Google Cloud’s artificial intelligence capabilities.
As part of the agreement, Kyndryl consultants “will help customers identify the optimal generative AI use cases and data foundations that align with their business goals,” a statement from the two companies said.
“Kyndryl will also use its extensive experience supporting businesses implementing Google Cloud existing and new technology – like Gemini – to continue enabling business transformation with AI and generative AI.”
Kyndryl also plans to leverage the Google Cloud Cortex Framework to help businesses gain more insights from enterprise resource planning data stored on Google Cloud.
It also plans to bolster its internal AI skills base, and will offer staff more access to training and bootcamps through the Google Cloud Cloud Academy for Kyndryl.
“Generative AI can fundamentally improve how businesses operate, helping large-scale organizations streamline complex processes and enable their workforces to be more productive,” said Yateendar Bollini, director of global consulting partnerships at Google Cloud. “Through our expanded partnership, Kyndryl will provide enterprise customers with the services expertise and generative AI solutions needed to accelerate business transformation with Gemini on top of the security capabilities and trusted infrastructure of Google Cloud.”
Kyndryl was formed in 2021 when IBM spun off its managed services division. The company manages on-premises digital infrastructure and services for more than 4,000 clients, including the majority of Fortune 100 companies.
Partnerships, such as the one with Google Cloud, are seen as a way of helping it retain its relevance to clients considering moving more workloads to cloud servers.
“Given Kyndryl’s data services expertise, along with our more than 30 years of experience managing large enterprise environments, Kyndryl understands the complexities in moving a generative AI solution from an idea into production,” said Nicolas Sekkaki, Kyndryl’s global applications, data and AI practice leader.
He added that by combining Kyndryl’s “unique perspective” on the industry with “Google’s AI history and in-house generative AI capabilities, [Kyndryl] can quickly and responsibly bring this new generation of AI to customers and drive their business value.”