Optimizely Partners with Google Cloud to Take Experimentation to the Next Level

In its early days, the Cloud was focused on helping businesses scale their capacity and trade CapEx for OpEx. Now, it's helping organizations leverage advanced services like AI and machine learning that enhance optimization and personalization.

On that note: Optimizely, a leading digital experience platform (DXP) provider, announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Google, which includes moving its market-leading experimentation solutions to Google Cloud. The multi-year agreement indicates a commitment by the two companies to collaborate on innovative opportunities to develop advanced, digital-first marketing solutions.

Through the new partnership, customers will benefit from Optimizely's experimentation-driven digital experience capabilities combined with Google Cloud's secure infrastructure and its AI, ML, and analytics. This includes Optimizely's Web Experimentation and Full Stack Experimentation resources, which allow marketers to take the guesswork out of delivering personalized, meaningful engagements.

The alignment with Google will enable Optimizely to innovate and evolve its services with the power of the Cloud. According to the press release, Google and Optimizely will also coordinate a joint go-to-market and sales execution strategy to deliver seamless experimentation solutions to customers across the globe.

"Through this partnership, Google Cloud infrastructure will underpin Optimizely's fast-growing and widely-adopted customer experience platform," said Rob Eslin, President of Google Cloud. "It's critical that businesses deliver exceptional products and services to consumers, and this partnership will enhance their ability to do so, driven by the Optimizely platform, data and Google Cloud's capabilities in AI and ML."

Elevating "Optimization as a Service" with Google Cloud

As the name intuitively suggests, Optimizely focuses on optimization – specifically as it relates to content and digital experiences. This is a key reason why Episerver rebranded under the Optimizely moniker following its acquisition.

While already a Leader on the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms, Episerver's acquisition of Optimizely launched a new direction for the company, elevating "Optimization as a Service" to the forefront of their product and service stack. The acquisition also gave Episerver an edge in the personalization category, allowing them to deliver on the promise of a truly complete digital experience platform for testing and optimization. 

As part of the multi-year agreement, Optimizely and Google Cloud will collaborate closely on co-innovation, developing new and expanded digital offerings that bring the best experience possible to new and existing customers. Joint Optimizely and Google Cloud customers will reap the robust benefits of the combined offering, including greater flexibility and control, unmatched security, and increased productivity and reliability.

The critical role of experimentation in digital marketing

As marketing continues to evolve, successful programs will rely on data-driven decision-making and optimized customer experiences. Having the scalability of Google Cloud will enable Optimizely to support the growing demand for experimentation to provide more actionable insights – giving marketers greater confidence around the performance of their content and campaigns. 

In an industry plagued by rapid disruption and constant consolidation, this partnership will help ensure that Optimizely's innovative solutions are more accessible, scalable, and quickly achievable for marketers looking to gain an edge and deliver optimal digital experiences.

"I couldn't think of two tech companies that are more relevant for the data-driven growth marketer than Google Cloud and Optimizely," said Alex Atzberger, CEO of Optimizely. "We share the same philosophy on leveraging data, AI, and experimentation to replace guesswork with certainty. By entering into this strategic partnership with Google Cloud, we're empowering marketers to unlock their digital potential, create exceptional customer experiences and deliver strong business outcomes all on a trusted, secure platform. It's a true win-win-win situation for Optimizely, Google Cloud, and the marketing industry overall."

MACH versus monoliths

Optimizely had quite an active year in 2021, acquiring both Zaius, a Customer Data Platform (CDP), and Welcome  – a content marketing (CMP), marketing resource management (MRM), and digital asset management (DAM) platform.

While these strategic acquisitions demonstrate Optimizely's ambition to deliver a full stack of value to marketers, it further positions the digital experience platform as a more monolithic player in the landscape. This is in direct contrast to the more recent energy and growth in the MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-first SaaS, Headless) category, where composable DXPs like Uniform are disrupting the market. The promise of more extensible solutions – and never having to replatform – is gaining traction with users and companies as they consider the future of their digital stacks. 

Still, leading platforms like Optimizely are responding to large-scale enterprise needs from customers who crave integrated data and solutions from a single platform. As pure-play members of the MACH Alliance continue to grow, they may face opportunities to expand value with more monolithic attributes. This is a key reason why Elastic Path has chosen to forego membership in the MACH Alliance and pursue a more flexible ecosystem model to build a community of composable commerce solutions.

About Optimizely

Optimizely is on a mission to help people unlock their digital potential. With its leading digital experience platform (DXP), Optimizely equips teams with the tools and insights they need to create and optimize in new and novel ways. Now, companies can operate with data-driven confidence to create hyper-personalized experiences. Building sophisticated solutions has never been simpler. Optimizely's 900+ partners and 1100+ employees in offices around the globe are proud to help more than 9,000 brands, including Toyota, Santander, eBay, KLM and Mazda, enrich their customer lifetime value, increase revenue and grow their brands. Learn more at optimizely.com. All third-party trademarks cited are the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference purposes. 

For more information on how Optimizely and Google Cloud will partner together, please visit: https://www.optimizely.com/google.