Diane Greene is replaced: ex-Oracle manager Kurian leads Google cloud business

In a blog post, Greene wrote that 51-year-old Thomas Kurian will join Google on November 26, 2018, after 22 years with Oracle, the most recent product development president. Greene wants to make him start so he will become the new CEO of the Google Cloud Division early next year. Talks with Kurian have led them together with Google chief Sundar Pichai and responsible for technical infrastructure, Senior Vice President Urs Hölzle.

Greene, one of VMware founders, can look back on a long history in the IT industry. She was on Google's board of directors in 2012, and three years later she was responsible for Google's cloud business. "When I took over the Google cloud business in December 2015 and entered the full-time company, I promised my family and friends to do this for two years and now, after an incredibly stimulating and productive three-year period, it's time to deal with my true passion: education and guidance. "

But Greene has launched spectacular cloud offerings for Google – including Spotify and Snap. Ultimately, however, it could reduce the deficit with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft's market leaders. According to the Sinergy Research Group, Amazon controls the cloud infrastructure market (IaaS, PaaS, Hosted Private Cloud) by 34%. Microsoft, like the second (15%), managed to shorten the gap for AWS for the last time. IBM, Google, and Alibaba follow each one with one-digit squares.

According to the news service "CNBC," managing the alphabet on the occasion of presenting the latest quarterly figures made the cloud progress quite smoothly. CEO Pichai said he sees "strong indicators" that big investments would pay. The group will gradually close larger transactions. In fact, there have been no business figures and facts so far, which some analysts have interpreted as "a little encouraging sign".

Under Greene's leadership, the Google Cloud platform has been heavily focused on innovative technologies in the field of Artificial Intelligence (IA) and Machine Learning. Although many customers appreciate this emphasis on technically advanced solutions, the big money in the market has recently been made more with basic tasks such as the transfer and transfer of basic infrastructure to the public cloud, and AWS and Microsoft in particular Azure – The right benefits.

With the appointment of Oracle manager, Thomas Kurian, Google is quite risky. Google is an engineering company with a special focus on consumer affairs. Oracle, however, has always focused on business customers, the software giant has not only focused strongly on development but also on marketing and sales. A better Oracle sale machine than Oracle is not on the ICT market.

Therefore, for Kurian, we need to reorganize Google's business, create more professional sales structures, and expand the cloud business. But if the manager wants to introduce Oracle methods to Google, he needs to be careful: Google employees are known to have their own mind.

When Greene wanted to provide the US Army with AI tools to analyze the drones, there was a revolt among Google engineers. The manager had to quit, Google employees have formulated a code of ethics, which now forbids the group to provide intelligence for military purposes or for the production of weapons. Google also withdrew its offer for a $ 10 billion military computer contract, based on the alleged lack of certification for handling sensitive data.

Kurian announced on September 5, 2018, a "break" with Oracle, after a "Bloomberg" report, according to Larry Ellison founder (74), arguing about the software company's course. It is obvious that Oracle should open and deploy software on the cloud infrastructures of competitors such as AWS and Microsoft. Kurian, who was responsible for the infrastructure business and, therefore, IaaS offers, saw no future as the owner of Ellison. (see also: Oracle introduces a new generation of cloud)

How important Kurian was to Oracle is that he was able to report directly to Ellison, the founder and technical director of the CTO, and CEOs Mark Hurd and Safra Catz reported to Ellison's Supervisory Board. According to insider reports, Oracle's infrastructure unit will once again be managed directly by Ellison – making it unlikely to pass from the improper owner course.