Google today said it acquired CloudSimple, a startup that makes it easier for customers to move VMware workloads from their on-premises data centers into public clouds. The acquisition gives Google an edge as it competes against Amazon Web Services and that public cloud provider's hybrid cloud service with VMware called VMware Cloud on AWS.

Google first started working with the Santa Clara, California-based startup earlier this year, and this summer announced a VMware partnership that used CloudSimple technology to give customers native access to the full VMware stack deployed on Google Cloud Platform. Rich Sanzi, VP of engineering at Google Cloud, said the acquisition allows Google to “accelerate a fully integrated VMware migration solution.”

By using this migration tool, customers “apps can run exactly the same as they have been on-premises, but with all the benefits of the cloud, like performance, elasticity, and integration with key cloud services and technologies,” Sanzi wrote in a blog post. “And best of all, customers can do all this without having to re-architect existing VMware-based applications and workloads, which helps them operate more efficiently and reduce costs, while also allowing IT staff to maintain consistency and use their existing VMware tools, workflows and support.”

Of course, this all sounds very similar to how VMware and AWS executives pitched VMware Cloud on AWS — but that hybrid cloud service has been available for two years. “This really is the ultimate hybrid solution, the ability to run any application on vSphere and now seamlessly take that private cloud environment and move it into the public cloud,” said VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger at the company’s annual VMworld event in 2017.

It also comes amid the lead up to AWS Outposts, which, in one flavor, will deliver the entire VMware software-defined data center to run on premises and to be managed as a service from the same console as VMware Cloud on AWS. The companies haven’t said exactly when Outposts will be available — just that it will happen sometime this year. But with AWS re:Invent just around the corner (that event takes place the first week in December), it’s a safe bet that we’ll get our first collective look at Outposts in the coming weeks.

Google didn’t disclose the CloudSimple purchase price.

In his own blog post, CloudSimple co-founder and CEO Guru Pangal said his team is “thrilled to join Google Cloud and its journey to establish the most modern public cloud for the enterprise.”

The CloudSimple announcement follows several other hybrid cloud products and acquisitions as Google puts the full-court press on enterprise customers and tries to wrestle cloud market share from Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

In September Google updated its Anthos hybrid-cloud platform with a new service mesh and Cloud Run serverless capabilities. This followed its Migrate for Anthos service that allows users to take a VM from on-premises or Google Compute Engine (GCE) and move it directly into containers running in Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE).

Additionally, Google has spent billions scooping up startups including enterprise file storage startup Elastifile, data analytics provider Looker, and security startup (and sister company) Chronicle.