Google Cloud Changes GCP Partner Reseller Discount For Enterprises: Exec Colleen Kapase Explains Why

Google Cloud’s global partner program leader, Colleen Kapase, explains Google’s new discount model for partners reselling Google Cloud Platform to enterprises as well as a new “nine-figure” partner fund slated for 2025.

Google Cloud is changing its discount model for partners reselling the Google Cloud Platform in large enterprise deals, which in some cases means removing the option for custom GCP discounting in multimillion-dollar deals.

However, Google Cloud top channel executive Colleen Kapase isn’t forcing enterprise customers to buy GCP directly from Google’s internal salesforce and is still encouraging partners to resell GCP in the SMB and mid-enterprise markets.

“We’re not saying, ‘Hey, you can’t resell here in any customer market.’ That being said, there are some simplifications and streamlining in the high-end of the market, where we’ve seen customers do have a preference for simplification, to work directly with us,” said Kapase, vice president of channels and partner programs for Google. “But partners can resell anywhere they choose from a segment size.”

Google Cloud’s reseller discount changes go into effect sometime during the second half of 2025, according to Kapase. No changes will be made to Google Workspace discounts.

New Nine-Figure Google Partner Fund Unveiled

The $46 billion cloud giant also revealed to CRN that it will be launching a nine-figure investment fund to drive partner services.

“This fund is going to provide incentives and rebates for qualified services work and support partners to continue helping drive proof of concepts, implementations, training on AI models, etc.” she said.

“We’re going to be moving to more of a co-sell motion with our services partners,” Kapase said. “This is where our sales team can work along with our partners, regardless of how the transaction is being done, and really keep bringing our partners in earlier in the sales cycle—very much with an intention for them to position their services delivery capabilities.”

Google Cloud has thousands of partners across the globe. The Google Cloud Platform is the third largest cloud platform on the planet, only behind Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. Mountain View, Calif.-based Google reported record revenue of $11.4 billion during third quarter 2024, representing an increase of 35 percent year over year.

Kapase takes a deep dive with CRN around Google Cloud’s new GCP reseller discount change, what accounts are deemed enterprise by Google, the company’s rules of engagement with the channel, and details about Google’s new nine-figure channel funding.

For GCP resellers, will Google Cloud partners still be able to resell GCP in the enterprise market?

First and foremost, partners can sell up and down the stack—wherever they want to, wherever customers choose to integrate.

So we’re not saying, ‘Hey, you can’t sell here in any customer market.’ That being said, there are some simplifications and streamlining in the high-end of the market, where we’ve seen customers do have a preference for simplification, to work directly with us. But partners can resell anywhere they choose from a segment size.

We are doubling down on our focus in the mid market, in the SMB, in public sector, in many countries and markets where reselling [GCP] typically is a way of doing business together. Workspace and security continue to move in that way.

So we have made some changes. I’m not going to get into the specifics of what discounts changes have changed in that large deal space, but we have made some ways to simplify it. Customers have choice and partners have choice in any market that they want to engage in.

When does this change go into effect?

The change is happening in the middle of next year and the end of the following year.

So what we’re trying to do is give really long lead time for our partners, who maybe have been doing traditionally more reselling, to look at their business models and invest with us in the services opportunity. Again, a long lead time of when that change is going to come so folks can transition.

When you say it affects only ‘large deals,’ what is Google’s definition here as a large enterprises deal?

It’s really in the large end deals where you’d expect to see our sales team.

So we’re thinking deals of, you know, $5 million or more.

So once you’re getting into those strategic size deals, that’s where we’re making some of those [discount] simplifications.

With the new reseller discount structure, is there going to be one flat custom discount for partners to resell GCP?

We are just flattening and simplifying the way we do custom discounts at the top end of the market, in the largest deal sizes.

Really it’s just a simplification and a flattening of things at the higher end of those larger deals, when things can get a little bit more complicated from a deal structure perspective. Our sales team is probably even more needed in those engagements.

What I love about Google is just the amount of investment that we make, and the amount of free technical enablement that we provide our partners, to help them build up their bench of strength in the services side of the of the business. … Frankly, where we see the profit and where the monetization is moving with AI, it’s moving to the services side of the business.

Does this GCP discount change affect partners globally or in specific regions?

It is mostly global. There are some exceptions.

So LATAM [Latin America] is one market that is not going to have some of these discounting changes. Middle East and Africa as well are excluded. Also in a few countries in Asia like Taiwan, Korea and Japan, and that’s probably it.

Other than that, in the rest of the world, we are making these simplifications and changes.

What type of partner does this affect the most? Google’s global system integrators (GSIs)?

No, not really at all.

The reason is most of the time where global SIs and even the regional SIs are focused on, those system integration services, they’re doing direct deals with the customer on their services engagement.

The resale opportunity is not really what they’re engaged in, if you will. So we see this having little to no effect on them.

But for organizations that are smaller, but maybe focus more on resale, we do see that opportunity of moving to that managed service model where you’re offering AI as-a-Service as an interesting route to go. Where, if you still want that direct customer relationship, you can have that, but you’re literally offering a model as a service to customers.

What about GCP renewals? Let’s say a partner doesn’t have a GCP renewal until 2026. What’s going to happen with renewals after you implement this reseller discount change next year?

Some customers are going to choose to just do business as they have. They’re happy they got what they need, and they’re just continuing to grow.

Other customers are coming to us and the relationship is changing significantly.

The strength of Google Cloud with our data products, our offerings, our models, etc. there are relationships at the renewal point that are changing. There are customers coming and doubling down in us. The investments are getting to pretty strategic sizes.

There are some cases where some of those customers are going to want to evolve how they’re working with us and work with us in a direct model, and we’ll support that as well.

But again, if they’re doubling down on us, especially with the data strategy, they’re going to need a services partner engaging with them to help them on that implementation.

So it doesn’t mean that a partner is not involved. It just means that the way that we’re working together is going to change slightly.

So Google will still abide by a partner’s renewal contract once this goes into effect?

Correct. Customer choice is first and foremost.

If that deal is going to really expand strategically and change, then the simplifying discounts will allow that customer to come and work with us too.

There are, frankly, a lot of customers that are really tripling down on their investment in Google Cloud. It’s a pretty exciting time to be a partner at Google Cloud right now.

What is Google Cloud changing in terms of changing your discount structure for partner reselling GCP?

We’re simplifying our discounting structure and we’re bringing in more predictable pricing. So we’re bringing our discounting model, especially for resellers, and really working to standardize it and simplify it.

We are really focus on those partners delivered services. You’re going to hear us talking more and more about streamlining from a co-sell motion. This is where partners can continue to work with us, and customers can continue to work with us, and we can work together in this co-sell.

Some may say, ‘Hey, does that mean Google is moving away from resale?’

Reselling is still really important to us. One of the areas where we’re doubling down on is our Google Cloud Marketplace, and that’s continuing to be in destination for buyers and sellers—both our own first party products and third party products. We’re continuing to look at different ways that we can get partners more and more engaged with that motion.

We’re going to be moving to more of a co-sell motion with our services partners. This is where our sales team can work along with our partners, regardless of how the transaction is being done, and really keep bringing our partners in earlier in the sales cycle—very much with an intention for them to position their services delivery capabilities. We want to get to delighted customers as fast as we possibly can.

Are Google Cloud’s internal sales force rules of engagement with partners changing for GCP resellers? Can you explain what those rules of engagement will look like in the second half of 2025?

Customers always have choice and they can engage with partners in any way. When we’re looking at co-selling, we’re actually creating new programs and new systems to have partners be able to tell us, ‘Hey, I’ve got this opportunity. I’d like to work with your sales team.’ Because we still need to be in this together with our partners.

We’ll have 100 percent of our opportunities having a partner participate.

What’s just going to change is who’s doing what? We’re very much looking at partners who have invested in technical resources, have pre-production solutions on AI, and engaging with them earlier in this opportunity.

Many of these partners bring decades of industry specific data, machine learning, data science experience. We’re bringing them into these deals earlier to help work with us on these opportunities, to identify these opportunities and to help close these opportunities. We’re shifting a ton of our funds into helping the implementation of these services too.

So our engagement across our sales teams and our partners actually is going to strengthen and deepen, because you have to be more engaged in an opportunity together to understand—not just how am I selling this opportunity—but how am I selling, delivering and delighting a customer.

So there isn’t rules of, ‘Work less with partners.’ If anything, we’re focusing on systems and programs of how do we work earlier with partners, earlier in sales opportunities, and engage with the right partners who have the right expertise.

So to wrap it up, enterprises can still buy GCP from a Google partner reseller?

Correct. We’re not restricting where they can buy. We are just changing and simplifying on large deals.

So there may be more options for customers, ‘Do you want to work direct with us?’ But in no way are we saying, ‘You can’t resell here.’

Talk about Google’s new nine-figure fund over the next three years. What should a partner be doing right now if they want to capture some of that funding?

We continue to see this new business model evolve with the birth of AI.

Managed service providers have been around for a while, but now we’re continuing to see more often, AI-as-a-Service, SecOps and Security Ops-as-a-Service.

So partners who truly meet that bar of end to end services offerings for customers, that’s something we’re going to keep investing in and investing our resources to help in terms of developing those practices, and help customer expansion of those practices.

Because there are some customers that are just saying, ‘Hey, this is getting complicated. This is difficult. I want to see the advantages of SecOps. I want to see the advantages of AI. I don’t necessarily have the skill set or the resources within my own company to manage that. So I’d like to outsource that to a third party.’

So that’s why we see that as such a huge investment opportunity for us in terms of partners that are offering that to customers. There’s a lot of customers asking for that level help.

When does that nine-figure-fund kick in for partners?

The beginning of the fiscal new year in January.