The engineering teams at Google Cloud are set to be shaken up in a bid to improve the company’s standing in the wider market.
The organisation’s CEO, Thomas Kurian, alluded to a number of technical leadership changes, in an internal email seen by CNBC.
It includes the replacement of engineering lead Eyal Manor, a 15-year Google veteran who was a key part of developing a number of the firm’s cloud products, such as Anthos. Manor is not entirely leaving Google, however, as the emails suggest he will look for another role within the company.
Google Cloud will be replacing Manor with Brad Calder, the company’s current VP of engineering of technical infrastructure, but in a more expansive role that will also oversee security and data analytics, according to CNBC sources.
Calder will report directly to Kurian, according to the CEO’s email, as the change will allow the technical teams to «work more closely» with the Cloud leadership team, as well as Google CEO Sundar Pichai and the wider Google leadership team, on its longer-term strategy.
Kurian added that Calder’s 15-years of cloud experience meant he had the «proven expertise» to take on a broader role at the company and shape its entire strategy.
Google Cloud and its technical infrastructure business have more than doubled in the past few years, according to Kurian’s email, which also said: «the demands of shaping long-term strategy while focusing on day-to-day operations have continued to accelerate. As a result, we felt that it was the right time to unify the broad portfolio under Brad Calder.»
The changes are thought to be about improving Google’s chances in the hotly contested cloud services market. The company currently has a 10% share, according to analyst Synergy, far behind both Amazon Web Services (33%) and Microsoft (20%).
«We have an enormous opportunity to continue to grow the business by expanding our total addressable market in new ways,» Kurian said in his email. «As the market changes, the needs of our products continue to evolve, and it’s important that we evolve our organisation to support this growth.»