Sparked by CEO Thomas Kurian’s customer-centric leadership, Google Cloud continues to climb in the Cloud Wars Top 10. On the strength of its recently posted $2-billion quarter, the vendor has now moved up to #6.
New leadership sparks transformation at Google Cloud.
While no one has questioned Google’s technological capabilities in the enterprise cloud, under former CEO Diane Greene the company seemed to be unable to move beyond an inwardly focused view of that technology. By failing to fully understand and engage with enterprise customers, Google Cloud failed to generate significant revenue growth or interest in the market in spite of its technical chops.
But since Kurian took over about 7 months ago, the company has done an organizational and cultural 180. It’s now committed to tripling the size of its sales organization over the next few years. And with Kurian having recruited long-time SAP sales executive Rob Enslin to be head of global field operations, Google Cloud now has a world-class leader for that rapidly expanding sales team.
For more insight on the drivers behind Google Cloud’s $2-billion quarter, please see Inside Google Cloud’s Breakout $2B Quarter: 10 Key Insights.
In addition, because parent company Alphabet has almost never disclosed revenue figures for Google Cloud, please check out my analysis of why that perspective is changing in Why Did Alphabet Reveal Google Cloud’s Q2 Revenue of $2B-Plus?.
IBM has major potential, but growth isn’t keeping up.
In addition, a couple of thoughts about the company that Google Cloud replaced at #6: IBM. Since I launched my coverage of the Cloud Wars 2-1/2 years ago, I’ve been a big fan of IBM’s capabilities in the cloud. I continue to hold that view. IBM has great technology assets, a superb base of customers, a deep commitment to innovation, and a deep and talented global sales team.
And now that it’s received full regulatory approval for the acquisition of Red Hat, IBM has the potential to become a leading player in the booming market for multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud solutions. For more on that, please see Can IBM and Red Hat Deliver on Big Cloud Promises? 3 Key Questions.
But.
The unmistakable fact is that while the enterprise cloud has triggered one of the greatest growth markets the tech industry has ever seen, IBM’s growth rate has lagged far behind that of its primary competitors. You can see the clear evidence of this in my recent piece IBM’s $19-Billion Cloud Business: Where Did the Growth Go?.
Innovation and growth in the Top 10 benefits customers.
For a broader perspective of how IBM’s cloud growth has failed to come even close to keeping pace with the 25%-plus growth rates of most other cloud leaders, I analyzed the growth rate of each company in the Cloud Wars Top 10 in The Top 10 Fastest-Growing Cloud Companies In Q1: Hypergrowth, Sustained.
Google Cloud’s ascension to #6 provides further proof of a point I’ve made many times: in the Cloud Wars, the undisputed winners are the business customers reaping the benefits of the ferocious competition as the world’s leading tech companies look to capitalize on the explosive growth in the enterprise cloud.
Disclosure: at the time of this writing, Google Cloud and IBM were clients of Evans Strategic Communications LLC and/or Cloud Wars Media LLC.
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