Google Hires VMware Co Founder Diane Greene As New Cloud Head

Google has hired Diane Greene, co-founder and former CEO of VMware, to head up its business cloud operations and help it compete with more established rivals in the space like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

Greene will oversee a new team, controlling all of Google’s cloud businesses – including Google for Work, Cloud Platform, and Google Apps – and will be responsible for development, marketing and sales.

Google Cloud Platform is one of the market leaders in IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service), but it still trails rivals despite price cuts helping it gain some significant traction over the past year or so. Some were surprised that Google’s cloud unit remained part of the core search business during the Alphabet restructure.

Google Cloud changes

However, Sundar Pichai, who became Google CEO as part of that restructure, said Greene’s appointment would allow it to continue the momentum generated by the success of its consumer services and take advantage of growing demand for business cloud services.

“Only a tiny fraction of the world’s data is currently in the cloud – most businesses and applications aren’t cloud-based yet,” he said. “This is an important and fast-growing area for Google and we’re investing for the future.

“As a long-time industry veteran and co-founder and CEO of VMWare, Diane needs no introduction. Cloud computing is revolutionizing the way people live and work, and there is no better person to lead this important area. We’re also lucky that Diane has agreed to remain on Google’s Board of Directors (she has already served three years here) – as she has a huge amount of operational experience that will continue to help the company.”

Google is also buying one of Greene’s businesses. Pichai claimed Bepop, a startup which focuses on creating software development tools for cloud applications and services, would help all aspects of Google’s cloud strategy.

“We think this will help many more businesses find great applications, and reap the benefits of cloud computing,” he continued. “Bebop and its stellar team will help us provide integrated cloud products at every level: end-user platforms like Android and Chromebooks, infrastructure and services in Google Cloud Platform, developer frameworks for mobile and enterprise users, and end-user applications like Gmail and Docs.”

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