CEO Thomas Kurian on #1 Google Cloud: 'Understand the Customer'

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I spotlight Thomas Kurian’s game-changing customer strategy at Google Cloud.

Highlights

00:03 — We’ve got a new number one on the Cloud Wars Top 10. That’s Google Cloud. They’ve leapfrogged Microsoft, and Oracle has moved up to the number two spot, with Microsoft coming in at number three. This is reflective of a very, very different business environment that we’re facing here at the beginning of the AI Economy.

00:37 — I had the chance to speak with Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian. The big point that Kurian made is you’ve got to understand the customer. But, you’ve got here a world-class technology company that, before Kurian’s arrival in 2019, had as its sole focus: make world-class technology and the world will beat a path to our door.

02:15 — As I said, Google Cloud has leapfrogged Microsoft to the number one spot on the Cloud Wars Top 10. The big thing is this customer understanding. And Kurian, in our video interview, describes a number of scenarios across industries, across domains, and how Google Cloud ties that all together for customer success going forward.

03:38 — I’ve had lots of lively discussions with people who believe that because Microsoft and AWS have more revenue than either Google Cloud or Oracle, therefore those are the dominant players. There’s market presence on one hand, and then there’s this key thing which is: How do you help customers build their futures rather than just perfecting what they’ve already done in the past?

04:15 — And I want to just say congratulations to everyone at Google Cloud for a monumental ascent — from number nine back in 2017, when I started the Cloud Wars Top 10, to number one. And overtaking Microsoft was an extraordinary feat, and that is driven by what customers want, not by internal tech-industry Silicon Valley metrics.

• Check out my full conversation with Thomas Kurian here.

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