• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, October 28, 2014

Google wants to sell more business cloud services, so the company has inked a partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers to offer new opportunities worldwide. The agreement follows Google's rebranding of Enterprise to Google for Work.

The corporate consulting group PwC will help companies adopt and manage Google's Internet-based services like Google Docs, mobile services and Gmail. The partnership includes plans to develop applications and tools for specific industries.

PwC has also begun to introduce Google for Work products to its own operations. As part of the agreement, the consulting firm will transition 40,000 employees in the United States and 5,000 in Australia to Google Apps to show potential customers how products work.

Google faces lots of competition in the cloud from companies including Adobe, Apple, Amazon, and Salesforce. Microsoft on Monday reported 128% growth to $952 million in revenue from commercial cloud services and platforms like Office 365, Microsoft Azure, and Dynamics CRM. IBM announced new services on its Bluemix platform -- specifically a handful of Watson-based services. Some include IBM DataWorks, dashDB, and Cloudant.

Amazon got a boost to its enterprise cloud offering when it announced hiring the former Dow Jones CIO Stephan Orban, appointed Amazon's Enterprise Strategy chief, a new position with the company. The idea is to give the same support to enterprise clients that startups use to build their operations.

As for Google, partnering with PwC will allow the Mountain View, Calif. company to develop offerings in cloud-enabled collaboration and productivity tools, as well as services to reinvent and optimize operations, connect with consumers and provide an enhanced customer experience; and the ability for companies to break new ground in cloud services.

Tom Archer, PwC's Google Strategic Alliance Leader, said in a prepared statement that the collaboration is about helping clients embrace their journey to the cloud, and transform their organizations to maintain relevance in a rapidly changing world.