Google Apps, Enterprise Cloud Revenues: $1B In 2013?

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Senior VP and Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora says the company's "enterprise business continues to grow at an impressive pace." How impressive? The search giant's cloud business will triple and reach nearly $1 billion in 2013, Technology Business Research Inc. (TBR) predicted.

During an earnings call yesterday, Google described Q4 2012 results. Consoldicated revenues were $14.42 billion, up 36 percent from Q4 2011. Net income reached $2.89 billion, up from $2.71 billion in Q4 2011.

The big question for Talkin' Cloud's readers and Google Apps for Business channel partners: How is Google's cloud business performing? Neither Arora nor Google have shared specific revenue figures for Google Apps and emerging platforms like Google Compute Engine or Google App Engine. But TBR offered these data points to the media:

• TBR estimates that Google's cloud business, consisting of Google Apps, Google App Engine and Google Compute Engine (no ad-related revenue) generated $97 million in the Q4 2012 and $314 million in the year.
• TBR believes Google's cloud business grew 83% year-over-year.
• TBR believes that Google's cloud business will triple annually in 2013 to just under $1 billion in 2013.

During the Google earnings call, Arora was a bit more coy -- offering only this statement about the enterprise business:

"Our enterprise business continues to grow at an impressive pace. It's been gaining traction across some of the largest companies in the world. New customers this quarter include Nintendo, the Canadian Broadcasting Company, Shaw industries, Costco, Randstad and Hyundai to name a few. Also signing in May is the U.S. Department of Interior, moved more than 70,000 employees to the cloud during Q4 making it the largest federal agency to date using Google Apps."

Those wins come at a critical time for Google. The company now has roughly 6,000 Google Apps for Business channel partners, but Microsoft's rival Office 365 cloud platform seems to be turning the corner and gaining momentum with partners and customers.