ITOCHU Announces Launch of Application and Systems Development Using Google Cloud™

March 31, 2021

ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Yoshihisa Suzuki, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has established a new company, GI Cloud, Inc. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Tasuku Yamazaki, President & CEO; hereinafter “GI Cloud”) as a subsidiary of ITOCHU INTERACTIVE CORPORATION (a wholly owned subsidiary of ITOCHU, headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masato Horiuchi, President & CEO; hereinafter “Itochu Interactive”) and will commence provision of application and systems development based on the Google Cloud*1.

In recent years, public cloud services such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud have been recognized for their low initial costs and flexibility in system building, and have also quickly gained widespread support in Japan. The market has grown to a mean annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 20%, and market scale is expected to exceed 1.7 trillion yen in 2023*2. In particular, Google Cloud is continuing to expand at a high rate of growth in comparison with other leading public cloud services because of its advantages in network speed and stability and its comprehensive range of services in the field of AI*3. At the same time, the shortage of highly specialized human resources at Japanese enterprises providing systems (development) based on the Google Cloud is an issue.

ITOCHU has established GI Cloud as a fully-owned sub-subsidiary. GI Cloud will provide application and systems development services specializing in Google Cloud, as one of only a handful of groups of engineers in Japan with that specialization; and will provide support for the large number of customer cloud migration needs, and the shift from conventional IT infrastructure to cloud infrastructure with a view to driving digital transformation (DX) both within and outside the ITOCHU Group. In addition to these activities, GI Cloud will also coordinate with ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Ichiro Tsuge, President & CEO; hereinafter “CTC”), a Google Cloud premier partner, and strive to solve the issues of companies both in Japan and other countries from the field of systems integration.

As an initiative promoting DX, ITOCHU made WingArc1st Inc., which develops a data management business, its equity-method affiliate in December 2019. In March 2020, ITOCHU began collaborating with AKQA Corp, which has strengths in the digital consulting business. In November 2020, ITOCHU forged a capital and business alliance with BrainPad Inc. to strengthen its DX promotion system. In addition to these initiatives, ITOCHU will further promote efficiency and new business creation by utilizing the data possessed internally and externally by the ITOCHU Group, and aim to provide new customer experiences, new products and new services from the perspective of incorporating market needs.

  • *1Google Cloud is a trademark of Google LLC.
  • *2Source: IDC Japan (Japanese public cloud services market industry field forecast, 2020–2024)
  • *3Source: Canalys (Global cloud infrastructure market Q4 2019 and full year 2019)

GI Cloud Company Outline

Corporate name GI Cloud, Inc.
Location Daiwa Azabu Terrace 3F, 3-20-1 Minamiazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Representative Tasuku Yamazaki
Established April 2021
Business Activities Systems integration (SI) business
URL https://www.gicloud.co.jp/ (Japanese)