Former Microsoft exec migrates to Google Cloud

Javier Soltano will run the cloud vendor's G-Suite division

Former Microsoft Cortana Javier Soltero boss has been tapped by Google Cloud to be VP of its G-Suite bundle.

Soltero - who previously co-founded mobile email application firm Acompli before it was acquired by Microsoft for $200m in 2014 - announced the news on social media.

"Some news on the professional front…I've joined Google to lead the G Suite team!" he wrote on Linked In.

"The opportunity to work with this team on products that have such a profound impact on the lives of people around the world is a real and rare privilege. I'm excited to get to work."

He spent four years at Microsoft, holding the roles of corporate VP of Outlook and its virtual assistant offering Cortana, respectively, before leaving in November 2018.

Cortana now sits in the Office bundle - a direct rival of G-Suite, which includes Google Docs, Gmail and Google Drive.

Soltero will run the consumer and business sides of G-Suite and report directly to Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, according to CNBC.

Kurian has previously pledged to take a more aggressive approach gaining market share against public cloud leaders Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

You will see us accelerate the growth even faster than we have to date," he told the audience," Kurian said during his maiden public speech as chief exec earlier this year.

"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."

During its most recent earnings call, Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed that the tech giant's cloud platform had hit an annual revenue run rate of over $8bn during its second quarter.

He also noted that cloud has become a key focus for its parent company, Alphabet.