SADA CEO On Google’s AI ‘Distinct Advantage’ And Thomas Kurian’s Winning Strategy

SADA CEO Tony Safoian is ecstatic that he placed all his bets on Google 17 years ago and believes Google Cloud is in prime position to win the leadership throne in the new era of artificial intelligence as customer demand is at an all-time high.

“We are having more conversations with almost every customer about the realm of the possible with AI, in which Google Cloud is seen as the market leader,” Safoian told CRN.

“Vertex AI represents a breakthrough set of building blocks to be able to build applications that solve real problems at a speed that was never possible before,” he said. “We’ve never been able to build production applications in four to six weeks in the history of time. Now you can. The only limit is your imagination.”

[Related: Nvidia CEO On ‘Joining Forces’ With Google To ‘Reinvent Cloud For AI]

In an interview with CRN, Safoian talks about Google’s distinct advantage in generative AI, driving net-new AI services sales, and the “critical” impact Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian has made on the company in just a few years.

“Thomas’ biggest achievement has been credentialing Google Cloud in the eyes of both the traditional enterprise and the most innovative digital companies—at the same time. That’s no easy task to do one of those things, let alone two,” he said.

‘No Partner Sells And Supports More Google Cloud Technologies’ Than SADA

Before diving into Safoian’s interview, it’s key to note that Los Angeles-based SADA recently won the 2023 Google Cloud Global Sales Partner of the Year award.

The win came after massive sales success around Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Workspace, which is a Google collaboration suite that includes Gmail, Sheets, Meets and more. Customer wins came in verticals like health care and life sciences, retail, financial services, digital natives and in the public sector. This year SADA has delivered a slew of services from consulting work to professional services to enterprises like Sony Picture Imageworks, AccuWeather, WeWork and Digital Turbine, to name a few customers.

“It feels good to be able to say no partner sells and supports more Google Cloud technologies anywhere in the world than SADA. That’s a pretty big statement,” said Safoian. “It’s about relentless focus and customer obsession. We say that our strategy is actually quite simple: All we need to do is win hundreds of new customers every year and never lose the old ones.”

Click through to read CRN’s in-depth interview with SADA’s Safoian.