Partners give their takeaways from Google Cloud's sales kickoff conference, which they were invited to for the first time ever this year

Google

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian at Google Cloud Next 2019

• Earlier this month, partners attended Google Accelerate, Google Cloud's internal sales kickoff conference - the first time they were ever invited to be a part of the annual event.
• Some of the partners in attendance praise Google Cloud for being easier to work with than ever before, and tell Business Insider that the company has streamlined the process of collaborating with the tech titan.
• That includes sharing more detailed metrics on how partners are performing, as well as increased access to Google Cloud's internal sales teams, the partners say.
• In working with Google Cloud, they also see that the company is quickly growing its sales teams and focusing more on specific industries and markets - a major change from just a few years ago, when it was largely focused on developers.
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Earlier this month, Google Cloud partners descended upon Las Vegas for Google Accelerate - marking the first time they had ever been invited to Google Cloud's annual sales kickoff conference. Companies like Intel and SADA Systems, who work with Google Cloud at various levels of its business, were able to attend alongside Google's own sales teams.

Some of those partners in attendance tell Business Insider that the conference highlighted major changes made at Google Cloud under the year or so since Thomas Kurian took over as CEO of the unit. While his predecessor Diane Greene made her own overtures to partners, Kurian's progress in the space has won high praise.

That's important for Google, amid a broader appeal from the major cloud platforms for allies in the cloud wars. Microsoft claims that 95% of its commercial revenue flows through its decades-old partner community, while Amazon Web Services quickly built out its own partner network as the first and biggest modern cloud platform on the planet.

Kurian recognizes that for Google Cloud's business to succeed against those larger cloud rivals, it needs partners, says Eric Rossman, vice president of alliances and partnerships at Avaya.

"He's very interested in driving this business," Rossman told Business Insider.

More than that, says Ashish Thusoo, CEO and co-founder of Qubole, it's a reflection of Kurian's big push to take all of the technology behind Google Cloud and make it more appealing to large customers in a variety of specific industries, like healthcare and finance. It's a strategy that Kurian may have brought from his long career at Oracle.

"Things have certainly changed since four to five years back where Google was very technology-focused and rightly so because they're great at technology," Thusoo told Business Insider. "Now that Thomas has arrived, it has become more enterprise-focused."

And in so doing, Thusoo says, Google cloud has made huge strides in building bridges with its friends and allies.

"They're really at the forefront of how cloud vendors should work with partners...It's a clear indication of their approach towards partnership," Thusoo said.

'Focused on making partners successful'

Thusoo says that many conference sessions at Accelerate underscored the theme of being partner-friendly, meaning that they often mentioned specific partners and how Google Cloud works with them. He also says he felt there was "a lot of access" to different teams at Google.

Thusoo says before, Google's process of working with partners was not as streamlined as it is now. For example, now Google Cloud shares ways of measuring how well partners are performing, and partners get introduced to internal sales teams and increased access to the company's strategic playbook.

"Now there are teams focused on making partners successful," Thusoo said. "There's a lot more infrastructure and more streamlined processes with how to engage with partners and what kind of access to give partners."

In general, Thusoo praises Kurian for this push, and highlights its partnerships with companies like Confluent, MongoDB, his own company Qubole, and others as a sign that Google Cloud is serious about working with partners.

'We have more relationships now in those markets'

SpringML CEO Charles Landry says that his major takeaway from the event is that Google Cloud is focused on targeting large customers and specific industry verticals.

"The ability to play in vertical markets and becoming an expert in those solution sets is becoming more important," Landry told Business Insider.

In general, Landry says he's seeing Google Cloud follow through on its commitment to hire enterprise-focused salespeople - another major initiative from Kurian - and he expects to see it focus more on specific industries and specific use cases.

Landry says that as it is, Google Cloud has made salespeople and engineers available to SpringML as a resource when it works with customers in industries like manufacturing or the energy sector. He says that Google Cloud's support in this area has only gotten better over the last year since Kurian took over.

"We have more relationships now in those markets where we operate with countless many more people than we did two and a half years ago when we started," Landry said. "They have a greater opportunity to penetrate the market, and tell their story which we help them do. We also see them set a priority around business angles of critical strategic pillars."

Likewise, Thusoo says that the conference showed him that Google Cloud is growing rapidly, both in its strategy, and in hiring teams for sales, marketing, and alliances.

"It was a very strong and vibrant conference," Thusoo said. "There was a lot of energy there. It was also built on a lot of great technology. While we know that Google does that, it's heartening to see they're investing a lot in the go-to-market side of things."

'We take away warm feelings on the level of investment they continue to make'

Landry says the conference also showed that Kurian is bringing on many strong veterans onto the leadership team.

"The third takeaway from Accelerate that I personally got is how deep and broad the leadership team is," Landry said. "We take away warm feelings on the level of investment they continue to make."

When Greene served as Google Cloud's CEO, she worked on expanding its partner network. Landry says that many of the strategic pillars Google Cloud now has in its partnerships came about under her leadership, and Kurian further clarified Google Cloud's focus on its enterprise business.

"As Mr. Kurian took over that position, he's renewed that enterprise level focus and renewed focus of GCP team around offers and become clear about what's important to them," Landry said. "He's been very clear and very focused about their objectives to become the #2 player."

In the long term, Landry believes Google Cloud is poised to win even more business, as it takes on Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

"Certainly there will be a lot of deals in 2020 and win a lot of those and some of them they won't, just like any company will and any partner will," Landry said. "I think in the long run GCP will do great. That level of innovation that's in GCP and Google is large, coupled with a level of commitment to succeed at an enterprise level."

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