McKesson Announces Move to Google Cloud

McKesson Corporation announced a technology collaboration with Google Cloud that will advance the development of next-generation applications and products, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, and enhanced analytics in support of the company’s strategic growth initiative to transform care delivery and drive profit.

As part of the agreement, Google Cloud will become McKesson’s preferred cloud provider. McKesson plans to implement Google Cloud Platform (GCP) across its enterprise as the foundation for its new infrastructure, platforms, applications and analytics workloads. In addition to driving greater efficiency across McKesson’s technology, the collaboration will also result in cost-savings.

“We’re excited to work with Google Cloud to design a cloud infrastructure that frees us up to problem solve for the future of healthcare,” said Andy Zitney, senior vice-president, CTO of McKesson Technology. “We are accelerating our migration and development process, which means we will be able to deploy new products and features for our customers faster, decreasing our time to value. This collaboration will help us more effectively capture, process, and convert data into actionable business insights – as well as focus on automation freeing our engineers’ and developers’ time.”

“As we evolve to a more digitally-based healthcare environment, cloud computing will change how healthcare organizations deliver quality, affordable services to their patients, members and customers,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud. “Leveraging Google Cloud’s secure, flexible and connected infrastructure, we believe our collaboration with McKesson will create new solutions that bring significant value to the healthcare ecosystem.”

The move to GCP will provide a flexible architecture for McKesson to:

• Build a secure, scalable, highly-resilient environment with the agility that the businesses demand;
• Develop new modernized applications and solutions for product manufacturing, specialty pharmaceutical distribution, and retail operations for pharmacies;
• Capture and deliver real time intelligence and insights with first-class cloud analytics tools;
• Expand capacity to integrate machine learning and AI into applications;
• Accelerate delivery of new services and ability to scale rapidly;
• Reduce infrastructure management and administration freeing technology teams to focus on product and feature development.

Reimagining a cloud strategy in support of growth

Last year, McKesson announced a strategic growth initiative focused on multiple growth areas including supply chain services for pharmaceutical and medical supply manufacturers; enhanced solutions for the specialty pharmaceutical market; and, new offerings that will strengthen the role of retail pharmacy in patient care delivery, all supported by data and analytics.

With Google Cloud’s capabilities, McKesson expects to accelerate the execution of leading-edge technologies to market, improving long-term performance.

In addition, McKesson’s cloud-first approach will transform how the company manages its information services–transitioning from a predominantly on-premises operating model to a hybrid, cloud-based services model for increased productivity.

“We’re at the start of an unprecedented era in healthcare technology, services, and ideas. That’s why I’m excited about GCP, not only for the infrastructure it provides but for what it allows McKesson to deliver for its customers-customer value that is secure, scalable, and at speeds we haven’t seen before,” added Andy Zitney.