'You will see us competing more aggressively' - new Google Cloud CEO

Thomas Kurian tells tech conference that vendor is going on a hiring spree to facilitate growth

Google Cloud is ramping up its efforts to grab market share from its main rivals, according to new CEO Thomas Kurian.

Former Oracle exec Kurian (pictured) was drafted in to replace Diane Greene, who held the chief exec position for three years before stepping down from the role late last year.

Google Cloud currently trails behind Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure in the public cloud market.

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco, Kurian told the audience that they will see the cloud provider competing much more aggressively in the public cloud space, reported CNBC.

"You will see us accelerate the growth even faster than we have to date," he told the audience.

"We are hiring some of the best talent from around the industry to grow our sales organisation, and you will see us competing much more aggressively as we go forward."

Though he did not specify how many people would be hired as part of this strategy, the new boss stated that Google Cloud will be focusing more on verticals, such as financial services.

He also told the conference that Google Cloud will engage with more channel partners to drive sales in enterprise, a market where it has historically struggled against AWS and Azure.

He added that Google requires an enterprise sales staff to be the first point of contact for customers when they encounter problems with their IT infrastructure.

"In order to serve large corporations, it's important that those organisations have a person to talk with," he said.

"I talked to some of our largest companies and said, 'Why did you choose Google?' And uniformly, the feedback I got is, '[It is] by far the best technology in the market, the technology is amazing, I've never seen anything like it.' This is what I heard over and over again."

He also unveiled the vendor's new Cloud for Life programme, which aims to retain existing customers as well as bring in new ones.

Kurian's comments reinforce those made last week during an earnings call by Google CEO Sandar Pichai, who stated that investment and expansion of its sales and distribution channels would be an "important area" for 2019.