When Thomas Kurian landed the CEO role at Google Cloud computing, he was greeted as a respected executive and technologist bringing 22 years of business skills needed from Oracle to a major undertaking: turning an underdog into a heavyweight competitor to meet the needs of the cloud of large corporations.

At the Google Cloud Next conference in early 2019, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai introduced Kurian, then about three months into the role, as a “tremendous leader with a powerful vision” who had already become met with hundreds of customers and partners and whose “personal productivity is testing the limits of G Suite and Calendar.”

The success of Google Cloud computing can be seen in its financial results (revenue is up 230% since Kurian joined Google Cloud and is on track to exceed $23 billion this year) and the adoption of customers such as Deutsche Bank, Ford Motor Company, Mayo Clinic. , Univision and the US Air Force, Kurian told Protocol in a recent interview. We have truly transformed ourselves, and most of our largest customers have been very successful in adopting and using the cloud through their work with us. So we definitely feel very confident that we’re doing it. Before leaving Oracle, Kurian had been its president of product development since 2008, reporting directly to founder and president, Larry Ellison.

Earlier in 2018, it was Kurian who unveiled Oracle’s ambitious plan to develop its own cloud capabilities with a massive build of its data center footprint and services using machine learning to automate routine operations. Growing differences with Ellison over Oracle’s cloud direction, including Kurian’s desire for a multi-cloud approach, reportedly led to his departure. Despite the growth that people have seen so far, the market is very early in its transition, so we see the potential of the market in three different ways. First of all, many customers have not yet made the transition to the cloud.