Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian at Google Cloud Next 2019
- On Tuesday at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said Google Cloud is growing its business as 'an important part of Alphabet's overall revenue growth plan."
- Kurian says the cloud market, where Google Cloud competes against Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, is still in its "super early stages," and he compared it to the Super Bowl playoffs between Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans.
- Google Cloud is working to focus on specific industries and strengthen its sales and partnerships.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian is well aware that he's in a distant third place in the cloud computing market, behind the dominant powers of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft.
But Kurian insists the cloud market is in such "super early stages" that it's anyone's game to win.
The Google executive turned to a recent football feat to drive home his point on Tuesday, invoking the Kansas City Chiefs stunning comeback game against the Houston Texans during the Super Bowl playoffs earlier this year.
"Lateness, earliness, I don't worry about that," said Kurian, speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.
"As I tell people, for those of you who watched the game between Kansas City and Houston, Texas - nothing against Houston, they're a great team - if you looked at the end of the first half, I think somebody would have chosen a particular outcome. I don't think it turned out that way," Kurian told the audience.
Kansas City was losing 24 to 0 in the early part of that game, before an epic comeback that vanquished the Texans 51 to 31.
The same applies for the cloud market, said a confident Kurian, who took the reins as Google Cloud CEO a little more than a year ago.
Kurian talked up Google's recent achievements which turned the cloud group into a $9 billion revenue business last year. And he provided glimpses into the playbook that he believes will push Google into the number two cloud ranking in the coming years.
"We are not distracted by anybody telling us about where we are in the market," Kurian said. "We're focused on executing. When we win customers, and when customers say what you're offering is truly unique, we're very confident in executing that plan. And we don't think the way that cloud and the market looks like 3 years out is going to be the way it does today."
'We're able to track some of the best sales talent in the industry'
One of Google Cloud's first orders of business is to focus on products and services specific for certain industries, like retail and media.
"Going forward, you will see us focused on executing the plan that we've laid out, which consists of focusing on large customers," Kurian said. "We now, on a global basis, touch many of the leading companies in the world in every industry, not only in every industry but in every geography."
Google Cloud is also continuing to work on scaling its sales organization. Previously, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that Google Cloud is looking to triple its salesforce over the next few years, and Kurian said Tuesday, "we're well on that way."
He says he's bringing in veterans from enterprise tech giants like SAP and Salesforce. And last September, Business Insider reported that it started a new program to hire senior salespeople to go after some of the largest customers.
"We've introduced world-class people, and it's partly because of our product strength and Google's brand as an engineering leader," Kurian said. "We're able to track some of the best sales talent in the industry, and that gives customers confidence that we're becoming much more capable as an enterprise company. That's why we're seeing the growth in customer wins."
Not only that, he says its sales team is more productive and the number of deals worth over $50 million more than doubled in 2019.
"We have done that by bringing in a new leadership team, specializing our salespeople by industry - so if you're a bank, you talk to somebody who understands banking - and building a set of solutions that are repeatable," Kurian said.
'We're very confident in the execution plan'
Kurian also spoke about Google Cloud's focus on partnerships, boasting about some new numbers in Google Cloud's partner momentum. It's become a bigger focus at Google Cloud, and in January, Business Insider reported that it invited outside partners to its internal sales conference for the first time ever.
Kurian says there's been a 190% year-over-year increase in partner influenced revenue for Google Cloud and a 13 times increase in customers won by partners from the first half of 2018 to the first half of 2019. He also says there's the number of Google Cloud certified partners has tripled year over year.
"We're very focused on going directly to a set of customers and then through partners, broadening our reach," Kurian said. "And we're very confident in the execution plan we have through our direct and indirect channels."
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