Convert to Cloud

Google Cloud India is gunning for enterprise customers by putting together a world-class team, and backing it up with its know-how

- HARICHANDAN ARAKALI

Google’s cloud-computing business has been accelerating its push for enterprise customers, especially with milestones such as Anthos, a sophisticated all-software cloud services management platform that the search giant released last year. Google Cloud India, too, has been ramping up its business. It has garnered customers across a spectrum of companies and verticals, from large established corporations such as Bharti Airtel, India’s second biggest wireless provider, to up-and-coming startups such as Bengaluru’s Ather Energy, which makes connected electric scooters.

And because Google’s services are synonymous with scale, enterprise customers know they can trust the company’s solutions, says Karan Bajwa, managing director, Google Cloud India. Google’s cloud platform is the basis for nine of its services— such as Gmail and YouTube—that have over 1 billion users each. They run on Google Cloud, and that gives credibility to the platform. Google now wants to take that capability to enterprise customers in a much bigger way than before. “The platform maturity is something that is very well established. The question is, how do we make it successful for enterprise customers?” Bajwa says. “And that’s where we are out to build what I would call a world-class enterprise selling team.”

The company has been investing on two fronts in India. One has been in people, building a top-tier leadership and technical team, and the second in partnerships with companies that can help sell and expand the reach of Google Cloud solutions. “We’ve been hiring great talent and putting them in front of customers, and there are investments happening across the world,” adds Bajwa.