While a lot of businesses have totally broken down during the pandemic in 2020, others managed to strive in the new, unprecedented environment. This should not be anything weird, since the already increasing demand for cloud products was even boosted by the events of 2020. Some companies like Google, for example, have experienced an immense increase in interest in their products from all over the world, as the whole world had now to switch to working from home.
Back in 2004, Google had IPO’d on the Nasdaq with $85 per single share. Fast forward almost two decades, they are now known as Alphabet, and COVID-19 plunged them down to $1000 per share. Fortunately for them, the rebound came almost suddenly, and Alphabet could be reaching new heights of share price soon.
The key to Google’s recent success
Partially, the author of Google’s success was Thomas Kurian, who has been appointed as CEO of the Cloud Platform in 2018. He and some new hires set the new targets that have noticeably influenced the company’s recent growth.
Mr. Kurian is indeed a technological veteran, who had worked for more than 20 years for Oracle before he joined Google. He was the one who conducted Google Cloud’s image change, as Google Cloud Anthos replaced Google Cloud Services Platform.
They started 2020 with a fantastic success of customer wins including PayPal, Lloyds, and HSBC. Other entities, including Revolut, Monzo, ABN Amro, Bank of Canada, UniCredit, and Starling Bank are also using a wide range of tools offered by Google, such as Big Query and Apigee.
The story of Google’s cooperation
Dan Torunian, who is the Vice President of PayPal said that he believes that Google Cloud offers the right approach to security and quality of offered products. In his article, Andy Samu clearly shares the same belief, as he states that Google Cloud’s services one-up their competitors on the financial market.
Anthos and Kubernetes Engine (GKE) allows users to build apps in one place, as says Google’s Christin Brown, Global Financial Services Strategy & Solutions Lead. Since regulators do not want the same provider to work with the majority of the jurisdiction’s banks, Google Anthos has been developed with an orientation towards collaboration.
As Kurian states, the main advantage of Google products is that they, unlike their competitors from Azure and Amazon, are in fact solving the multi-cloud problem. There is no doubt that Google’s product is not perfect and has its flaws, but it does well with AI and Machine Learning, and that is due to the TensorFlow platform’s implementation by Google.
It is also a great story, of how Google (or Alphabet) managed to make a complete shift from an addition to other services, to the full-time leader on the market. Another great example of that is Deutsche Bank, which became Google’s customer during the summer of 2020.
The future of Google Anthos Cloud
Microsoft is officially a number 1 among cloud platforms in terms of market share, at least that is what comes from a CIO report published by JPMorgan. Some voices say, that the giants like Google or Apple might even start to provide the same services as banks do nowadays. Acquisition of Data Aggregators may be one of the steps towards that.
Back in 2019, Deutsche Bank’s analysis estimated Google Cloud’s value at $225 Billion and suggested that it was Thomas Kurian’s presence in the structure that gave the whole company a kick-start towards a better and more prosperous future.
There is still some uncertainty over the future of Big Tech companies, as the Anti-Trust issue is being still discussed. US is in fact thinking of breaking up the wealthiest and biggest tech companies. That is why newly appointed Sundar Pichai (CEO of Alphabet) was supposed to meet Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, and Apple’s Tim Cook.
In the recent statement, Jerrold Nadler, the House Judiciary Committee Chairman, and David Cicilline, the Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman, have updated on the investigation of the dominance of a few digital platforms. They needed the testimonies of the CEOs of the “centrally-positioned” companies, playing big roles in American citizens’ lives.
You can read more about that, as well as a deeper analysis of DeepMind, in Andy Samu’s piece published on the Disruption Banking website. For more, click the following link: https://disruptionbanking.com/2020/07/14/googles-anthos-continues-to-grow-market-share-why-are-banks-choosing-them/
