Google Cloud appoints Bikram Bedi as new leader for its India business

Bedi joins Google Cloud from SoftBank-backed online grocery startup Grofers, where he served as president for strategy and new initiatives

Google Cloud on Thursday said Bikram Singh Bedi would succeed Karan Bajwa as its new managing director for India. Bedi is a senior leader with over 26 years of leadership experience and will be responsible for leading Google Cloud's sales and operations teams in the country.

"I'm happy to welcome Bikram (Bedi) to lead our India business," said Karan Bajwa, vice president of Google Cloud in Asia Pacific. "With a proven track record of building and growing successful enterprise businesses, his experience will be a tremendous asset to the team as we embark on this next phase of growth."

Bajwa, who was appointed as head of Google Cloud in India in March last year, was recently elevated as the company's new leader for Asia Pacific.

Bedi joined Google Cloud from SoftBank-backed online grocery startup Grofers where he served as president strategy and new initiatives. Prior to that, he set up the Amazon Web Services (AWS) business in India and was the head of India and South Asia for 6 years. He also held various leadership positions at tech firms IBM and Oracle. 

"I'm excited about this new challenge and I look forward to extending Google Cloud's momentum in India," said Bikram Singh Bedi, managing director, Google Cloud India. "The true test of 2021 will be how enterprises will leverage cloud computing to modernize and scale for growth and Google Cloud is committed to helping them accelerate their digital transformation to build a strong foundation for the future."  

Google competes with global rivals, such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Alibaba, to dominate cloud computing services. In India, it is eyeing areas such as banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), manufacturing, healthcare, public sector, media and entertainment, telecom, and retail.

Google Cloud has been on a strong growth trajectory with enterprises in India over the last 12 months, with wins across major industry verticals. For the past several months, Google has bagged many new customers including information technology giant Wipro and travel company Cleartrip. Also among them is National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), Sharechat, Tech Mahindra, TVS ASL, ICICI Prudential and Nobroker.com. Google Cloud said it continues to invest in India and is on track to launch its Delhi cloud region in India this year — it's second after Mumbai which was launched in 2017.

The global cloud computing market's size is expected to grow from $371.4 billion in 2020 to $832.1 billion by 2025, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.5 per cent during the forecast period, according to a report published by MarketsandMarkets.

It said digital business transformation has entered a more challenging and urgency-driven phase due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Global tech giants are providing customers with cost-effective and productive digital solutions as every industry is economically hard-hit from the pandemic. The sudden shutdowns of offices, schools, and enterprises have increased the demand for cloud solutions and services.

The cloud market in verticals such as IT, telecom, BFSI, and media and entertainment has impacted positively due to the work from home initiative. Employees are using cloud collaboration platforms for communicating and consuming OTT (over-the-top) streaming services heavily as they need to stay at home amidst lockdowns.