Google Cloud’s Carolee Gearhart: ‘We Are 100% Behind Our Partners’

Being the biggest anything doesn’t automatically equate to being the best. And maybe that’s what Google Cloud, still the world’s third-largest public cloud provider, is banking on. No doubt, the company aims to enlarge its market share — see CEO Thomas Kurian’s September engineering executive reorganization as evidence. Remember, too, CFO Ruth Porat’s assertion to analysts during Google Cloud’s second-quarter earnings call: “We will continue to increase the pace of investment. And that’s true in headcount, it’s true with compute, sales and marketing, really across the board.” In line with that promise, Google Cloud is intensifying its channel efforts, extending ample reasons for partners to sell its platforms.

Google Cloud’s Carolee Gearhart

“We want to be the one they want to work with,” Carolee Gearhart, vice president of worldwide channel sales and SMB sales at Google Cloud, told Channel Futures in a recent interview.

Google Cloud intends to make that happen “by being simpler, easier to work with, being more consistent,” Gearhart added, building on a similar message she shared with Channel Futures readers in May.

Along the way, she said, the vendor will help managed service providers, independent software vendors, value-added resellers and other partners to keep setting themselves apart from peers.

“We know our success is going to be built on their success and we’ve both got to be moving in the right direction,” Gearhart said.

Is Cloud Unstoppable?

The cloud industry as a whole is headed in a seemingly unstoppable upward trajectory. Research firm Forrester now predicts cloud spending will rise at a 38% compound annual growth rate through 2022. That’s 7% higher than analysts originally projected. Similarly, Synergy Research Group said this month that, throughout the first half of 2021, cloud vendor and operator revenue jumped 25% over the same period last year, reaching $235 billion. Cloud infrastructure – comprising IaaS, PaaS and hosted private cloud services – increased the most, according to Synergy; revenue there grew by 37%. The firm’s projections show that annual spending on cloud services will double in less than four years.

All that is to say that, while Google Cloud remains third on Gartner’s Magic Quadrant, the vendor isn’t letting that ranking put a damper on its goals. The cloud opportunity forecast by a range of analysts is too high. To that point, even though Google Cloud continues to operate at a loss, it’s funneling billions of dollars into product development and launches, and direct and indirect sales efforts. In fact, when it comes to the channel, Google Cloud has seen notable traction, Gearhart said.

“In 2021’s first half, our channel partners won 75% more deals than in the same period last year versus this year, and saw a 175% increase in the number of deals year over year,” Gearhart said.

Along similar lines, Forrester says partners can achieve an 86% return on investment with Google Cloud, up from 50% in last year’s study. Each year, Google Cloud commissions Forrester Consulting to deliver a partner-centric Total Economic Impact report. The most profitable partners hold Google Cloud specializations and offer professional services, Forrester found.

No wonder, then, that Google Cloud plans to release at least 10 more certifications over the next 12 months, and has taken the wraps off various partner incentives and support offerings. It’s all about giving partners the tools to distinguish themselves from the competition, Google Cloud says.

“Our goal in creating a differentiation journey is to help our partners leverage their existing strengths, while building even deeper Google Cloud-specific depth in those areas,” Derrick Thompson, global head of partner differentiation, wrote in an Oct. 5 blog.

To that end, Google Cloud introduced a variety of new resources at its recent Google Next event. And it gave partners an inside look at even more news at Partner Summit, its conference within a conference, which media are not allowed to attend. Not to worry, though — Channel Futures got the scoop from Gearhart.

What’s in Store for Google Cloud Partners

Google Cloud has a lot in store for the channel; its executives understand that partners produce more when they have top-tier vendor support. (Indeed, Forrester tracked that in its study: “Google’s straightforward incentives program has a significant impact on the practice’s margins and profitability,” it said.) When it comes to enablement and incentives, Partner Summit did not disappoint.

First, Google Cloud has …