In a move to better compete against Amazon Web Services, Google’s new digital store will let companies and other organizations purchase cloud products like cybersecurity tools for mobile devices.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google is launching a digital store offering cloud-based software to companies and other organizations, its latest effort to catch cloud leaders like Amazon Web Services.

 

Google is chasing Amazon Web Services, the market leader in the cloud, and Microsoft Azure.

Google Cloud and MobileIron Inc., which offers a cybersecurity tool for cellphones, are partnering on a new online marketplace that will allow businesses to buy cloud services and distribute them to employees, while keeping corporate data secure. The platform which customers will be able to access through mobile telecom providers, may roll out in the second half of the year.

The new product will enhance Google’s G Suite, an online store for company and third-party applications, allowing customers to tap an even larger number of external services through the Google universe. MobileIron’s shares rose as much as 14% to $4.60 after the announcement, the biggest intraday gain since October. MobileIron sells software applications companies use to secure and control access to their enterprise data systems, including product information, cloud-based customer relationship management systems and financial records. Its customers include such companies as diversified manufacturer Curtiss-Wright, consumer products manufacturer Philip Morris International and Equinix Inc., a provider of internet data centers to clients including distributors Ingram Micro and Essendant Inc.

Google is chasing Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Web Services, the market leader in the cloud. AWS has operated a similar kind of software store since 2012. Google’s G Suite is also in an uphill battle for corporate software customers against long-time leader Microsoft Corp.’s Microsoft Azure. While Google doesn’t disclose sales of business software, it said last summer that the unit has more than 3.5 million paying customers.

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Companies often buy mobile cybersecurity tools through phone service providers such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., as employees process an increasing amount of company data through smartphones.

Google’s new initiative with MobileIron doesn’t mark the first tool to bundle various cloud services—AT&T offers a NetBond virtual private network to allow users to securely connect to cloud services and AppDirect Inc.’s marketplace, AppDirect.com, lets companies buy various software solutions. But the new entrant will allow users to pay for many services together, as well as bringing Google’s scale and cachet to try to popularize the trend, according to Marcin Kurc, head of commerce platform at Google Cloud.

“Any type of simplification and working with market leaders helps us to grow the ecosystem,” Kurc says.

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