Google, Envista Sign Agreement

Envista Inc. has reached an agreement with Internet search giant Google Inc. ( GOOG - Analyst Report ) to license its Google Maps Engine for location-aware apps on its IRIS Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). None of the organizations disclosed the financial aspect of the agreement.

Founded in 2006 by Rick Fiery and Marc Fagan, Envista provides map-based solutions, which are delivered through the Internet to consumers to help them manage their businesses efficiently. It gives them real-time data about traffic and the exact location of ongoing public works among other things so that they can avoid those areas and other related information that may help them deliver or manage businesses effectively.

IRIS, which is a cloud-based Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) technology, integrates with location-based web apps without any hassle. This app is most crucial to utility, pipeline and other industrial companies that have their business assets spread across huge areas. Any disruption is detrimental to the business. Thus, these business units require a constant monitoring system.

Following the integration with the Google Maps Engine, IRIS users will have a familiar tool to access their location-specific data. The depth of Google’s technology will enable them to operate on a very large scale and across geographies and mobile devices.

This could reduce risks, improve productivity and at the same time provide useful insight for decision making. The Google map powered IRIS apps can improve coordination among office operations and project sites at remote locations by offering data visualization at any point of time.

Google is quite active in the cloud space as it recently acquired Talaria, an infrastructure startup company. Its application server enables developers to code in a programming language of their choice.

But most of the big technology companies have some offerings targeting the cloud segment. Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN - Analyst Report ) , one of the major pioneers of cloud computing, modernized its own data centers and launched a cloud-computing business for external customers called Amazon Web Service (AWS) in 2006. Recently, Microsoft ( MSFT - Analyst Report ) acquired cloud-monitoring startup MetricsHub to boost its cloud-based services.

Therefore, Google’s strategy of acquisitions and agreements to beat the competition may pay off going forward.

In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012, Google’s gross revenue (including TAC) touched a record $14.4 billion, representing sequential and year-over-year increases of 2.3% and 36.2%, respectively. Excluding the $1.5 billion contribution from Motorola, revenues were up 21.9% from the year-ago quarter.

Google has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Rovi Corp. ( ROVI - Snapshot Report ) , another Internet services stock, has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).