Google Cloud business in India is growing rapidly and the pandemic is rapidly adopting cloud. The company is set to open a new office later this year in India, one of its fastest growing markets where it has two so-called cloud regions. According to research firm Gartner, end-user spending on public cloud services in India is projected to grow 29.6% to $7.3 billion in 2022.
In an interview, Google Cloud India Managing Director, Bikram Singh Bedi, who completed one year in office this month, talked about the company’s growth trajectory, drivers of cloud adoption and expansion plans. Edited excerpt:
How has been the growth trajectory for the cloud business in India over the past year?
Globally, Google Cloud reported revenue of $5.5 billion in Q4 2021 and during the full year 2021, cloud revenues stood at $19.2 billion, reflecting our growth trajectory. Closer to home, India continues to be one of the major and fastest growing markets for Google Cloud. Our customers recognize the differentiated value we bring to them with our innovative solutions and exceptional service delivery. Our success is backed by our very capable sales force and strong partner ecosystem which is helping us to grow. Our global engineering teams are continuing to advance our leadership in innovation, launching more than 2,000 new products.
With Google Cloud set to open a new office in India this year, what is your hiring strategy?
We recently announced that Google is opening an office in Pune, and the first Googlers in the space will be at our cloud product engineering, technical support and global distribution center unit. This new location is expected to open in the second half of 2022, but our placements now begin with our rapidly growing teams in Gurugram, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. This planned expansion is the latest in a series of investments by Google Cloud to drive the growth of our customers and drive valuable offerings for organizations of all sizes. Additionally, we have two cloud regions in India – Mumbai and Delhi-NCR. The cloud sector is the technology infrastructure that provides storage and services for Google Cloud customers in response to strong customer and partner demand.
What are the factors driving cloud adoption in India?
According to analyst firms such as Gartner, India’s cloud adoption has accelerated since the pandemic began and double-digit growth in the public cloud is expected to continue over the next year as well. Over the past 18 months, we have seen the Ministry of Education undertaking massive digital capacity building efforts to support teachers with tools and resources for distance learning; See for the first time how COVID-19 has supercharged the shift to e-commerce in retail as people have made some of their purchases online; And also saw a sharp increase in online banking and digital payments adoption reaching historic highs. Over the past two years, we have announced our significant collaborations with leading clients including Jio, Bharti Airtel, Rapido, RBL Bank, Cryptowire, Wipro, ShareChat, Grow, InMobi, Eros Now, Voot, Jiotap, STL, Roposo, Viacom18 Media Of. IIT Madras, GR Infrastructure etc.
What is your strategy for competing with leaders like AWS and Azure in this area?
Service providers are realizing that what they’ve got through the enterprise technology of the past 20 years, they won’t get it in the next 10. One of the main differences between Google Cloud and why customers choose us is our infrastructure. Google was built in the cloud and we leveraged the same infrastructure when we built our cloud platform, which means we have more than 20 years of experience operating planet-level infrastructure. Next is flexibility and openness. We help customers avoid lock-in and have the strongest commitment to multi-cloud. Other reasons are insights from data, consistency, ability to provide customized industry solutions, security, collaboration and the power of Google.
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