Last week saw the incumbent providers consolidate their hold over the public cloud with a series of strategic moves aimed at addressing the emerging use cases that are starting to appear on the agenda of their customers. Amazon Inc. kicked off the push by launching a managed registry that promises to streamline the management of the software components used in the development of containerized applications.

The service allows organizations to create secure repositories where their engineers are able to store source-code and other programming building blocks like operating system images without fear of hacking. Availability can be restricted based on role such that key elements of an application like the backend data processing functions are only accessible to workers who are explicitly authorized to work on that part of the project. Amazon hopes that the addition will bolster the one-stop-shop value proposition of its public cloud, which is the same goal Salesforce.com Inc. hopes to achieve with its latest acquisiton.

The customer management giant last week announced that it’s shelling out $360 million to purchase SteelBrick Inc., a long-time partner that specializes in billing automation. Its namesake service targets business-to-business organizations that have to factor a massive amount of variables into every invoice, including support agreements, upgrade options and payment terms, among others. Absorbing the startup’s capabilities into its platform will enable Salesforce.com to put up a much better fight against rivals like Oracle Corp. that are also stepping up their cloud efforts.

The database giant followed up the acquisition of SteelBrick with the announcement of plans to open a new Austin campus that will focus on primarily promoting its infrastructure-as-a-service suite in the region. The 560,000-square-foot waterfront complex is expected to employ more than 750 marketing and sales professionals once it becomes fully operational in a few years’ time.

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