June’s live Cloud Wars Expo event featured dozens of industry leaders allowing the Acceleration Economy team access to the inner workings of the greatest growth market the world has ever known.
In this News Desk interview, analyst Aaron Back welcomes guest Umesh Vemuri, VP of Global Strategic Customers and Industries at Google Cloud.
Highlights
00:01 — Aaron introduces today’s guest, Google Cloud’s Umesh Vemuri, who details his role with Google Cloud over the past ten years.
02:28 — What are the challenges facing businesses hoping to transition to purpose-built cloud solutions? Vemuri explains the difference between digitization and broad IT modernization.
03:15 — Pre-2020, conversations with customers typically revolved around cost and performance efficiency. Today, customers are focused on rapidly digitizing their core business to aid in acquiring and serving more customers as a company.
05:43 — Purpose-built solutions are “speaking the customers’ language.” Cloud technology is a “human enabler.”
07:25 — How does Google Cloud help customers put strategic industry-specific solutions in place and harness the necessary data? Vemuri details how the digital transformation and cloud adoption process breaks down silos within an organization, using an e-commerce retail site as an example.
09:58 — Vemuri explains how Google Cloud helps its partners address problems vertically, naturally eliminating data silos and revealing greater insights.
11:30 — Vemuri discusses logistical solutions and fulfilling accelerating customer expectations.
12:56 — Aaron talks about balancing data access and security. Cloud provider-managed controls address security requirements necessary for protecting those cloud products.
14:40 — Digital sovereignty is top of mind. Accessing and moving data relies on data sovereignty (independent control over access to their data), operational sovereignty, and what Vemuri terms software sovereignty (being able to run software without a relationship with the cloud provider).
16:52 — Aaron turns the discussion to co-creation. Vemuri suggests the accelerated development of industry-specific solutions is directly tied to co-innovation, particularly in industries that are typically slow to adapt.
19:23 — Vemuri refers to the manufacturing and healthcare industries as prime examples of increased automation and adoption over the past two years.
21:48 — Google Cloud sees the evolution from Web 2 to Web 3 through the lens of practical use cases.
22:41 — Aaron describes the three different realities of the Metaverse: physical, digital, and virtual. The Metaverse aims to create an overlap between these three areas.
23:38 — Vemuri looks ahead to potential Metaverse challenges and benefits of “immersive commerce” in a number of industries.
25:06 — Fitness and travel were each forced into the Metaverse, but have since found ways to thrive by offering virtual experiences.
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