India's digital thrust makes it special: Shailesh Rao

Interview with Director & Global Head (cloud business unit), Google

Following global businesses embarking on a digitisation path, internet and technology giant Google says this is now being seen in India, too. Shailesh Rao, Google's director and global head (cloud business unit), tells Bibhu Ranjan Mishra it is only a matter of time before government agencies in India look at using public cloud hosting apps. Edited excerpts:

In terms of adopting Google's cloud infrastructure and apps, where do Indian enterprises stand?

There is a lot of momentum. People are excited about what Google has to offer. We are clearly seeing that among customers, who are embarking on a digital transformation journey. So, this makes India more special for us.

Are clients in India increasing their focus on digitisation?

The decision of clients to move to the cloud and digitise their business emanates from the understanding that if they do not transform themselves, they will be left behind. Digital Advantage, a recent study by Capgemini and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), surveyed about 400 companies globally and found those that were more digitally matured were able to outperform competition. One of our clients in India I am excited about is USV, a pharmaceuticals company with about 4,000 employees across 10 locations. Typically, it took the company about 10 days to generate a sales report; now, with Google Drive and Docs, it is done almost in real-time. So, when you have this kind of results, adoption becomes too compelling to ignore.

Hosting applications on a public cloud has been a concern among businesses. How do you mitigate these?

Not at all! If you look at the infrastructure we have built through the past 15 years, which hosts Gmail, Docs and other products that make Google apps work, these aren't served by a cloud designed specifically for Gmail. It has been designed to serve all Google products. We have hundreds of security experts around the world whose job is to maintain reliability and security of systems. Frequently, when companies (clients) carry out due diligence, they find our security capabilities are much better than their internal ones.

When will government bodies start hosting applications on a public cloud such as Google?

In the US, we have a dedicated practice for government agencies, as well as those of state and local governments. Some federal agencies use products such as Google Maps for various functions. Some customers in the public sector are looking at the Google cloud platform to build applications. So, it (the government) is a sector that is ripe to adopt the cloud. Soon, more and more public agencies and governments across the world will realise this transformation isn't restricted to enterprises alone.

Do you have specific plans to boost cloud adoption in India?

Today, we are able to bring not just Google cloud, but the entire Google portfolio of offerings. Recently, we announced India-specific pricing to take advantage of the buying power here, offering very attractive prices for all Google apps. Indian businesses have found this very attractive. Besides, two week ago, we announced an across-the-board price cut for the Google cloud platform.