Google and French IT services giant Atos have agreed a new global partnership that will see the two work on hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence services, Atos said late Tuesday – adding that it has now adopted Google Cloud as primary cloud provider for its clients.

The partnership will include a focus on secure, compliant storage for businesses, as well as data analytics, machine learning and collaboration tools.

Atos also announced the opening of three new innovation and R&D centres across the UK, France and the US, while Google unveiled a new product suite, including a new way for companies to build links between their data centres and Google Cloud, adding “Partner Interconnect—high-bandwidth connectivity to the nearest Google Cloud Platform (GCP)” to its Cloud VPN and Dedicated Interconnect offerings.

This offers private connectivity to Google Cloud to organizations that don’t require the full 10Gbps of a dedicated circuit, the company’s John Veizades said in a blog. Partner Interconnect also allows organizations whose data centers are geographically distant from a Google Cloud region or Point of Presence (POP) to connect to GCP, using Google’s partners’ connections.

Atos will meanwhile expand its “Canopy Orchestrated Hybrid Cloud” with Google Cloud Platform as Atos’ preferred public cloud platform, the company said, adding that it will also take advantage of specific technology, such as container orchestration with Google Kubernetes Engine, to drive hybrid cloud adoption in global enterprise organizations.

VMware multi cloudData Analytics & Machine Learning.

Atos will develop a machine learning (ML) practice that will use Google Cloud’s ML APIs to create industry specific solutions across multiple verticals, the company said – as Google also announced new AI additions to its G Suite of software tools.

“Together, we will enable fast and smooth adoption of AI for enterprises,” said Thierry Breton, Chairman and CEO of Atos. “With this partnership, Atos becomes the ‘last mile’ of the digital information chain.”

Google simultaneously rolled out what it described as “major” updates to its G Suite of tools on Wednesday 25, including an “all-new” Gmail, with advanced security features, new applications of Google’s AI and more integrations with other G Suite apps.

Gmail Confidential Mode

Google said: “With Gmail confidential mode, it’s possible to protect sensitive content in your emails by creating expiration dates or revoking previously sent messages. Because you can require additional authentication via text message to view an email, it’s also possible to protect data even if a recipient’s email account has been hijacked while the message is active.”

Built-in Information Rights Management (IRM) controls, meanwhile, will also allow users to remove the option to forward, copy, download or print messages, to help reduce the risk of confidential information being accidentally shared with the wrong people.

“Since the beginning, our aim with G Suite has been to help companies transform the way they work with our suite of cloud-based collaboration and productivity apps,” David Thacker, VP Product Management at G Suite, said in a blog post. “The all-new Gmail experience is available for over 4 million paying businesses to start using today in the G Suite Early Adopter Program (EAP) and can be turned on in the Admin console.”