Google’s Carolee Gearhart On Workforce Transformation, 'Leaning In' On Open Source, And What Partners Can Expect In 2019

What Partners Want

Carolee Gearhart, vice president of worldwide channel sales for Google Cloud, was very excited to join the company in July. The tech veteran is no stranger to the channel, having run partner ecosystems for large, global companies, as well as small companies just getting their start in the channel. Her experience immediately paid off as she began meeting with partners all over the world—from global systems integrators, to smaller, vertical-focused partners—to get to the bottom of what's working, what needs work, and what partners are looking for from the Mountain View, Calif.-based company.

Five months into her new gig, Gearhart sat down with CRN to talk about Google's focus on open source, its strength in the artificial intelligence and machine-learning space, and why now is the time for innovation-focused partners to get on board with Google. Here are excerpts from the conversation.

What have been your first priorities since coming aboard in July?

My main priority was to do no harm and understand what's going on. At this point, I've visited every [Google] region around the world to really assess where things were at. There were things that became clear right out of the gate—making sure the infrastructure under Nina [Harding, chief of global partner strategy and programs] is able to support and scale the growth that these partner businesses are experiencing. One of the biggest things I heard was our partners can't hire fast enough—which is something I've never heard before consistently in every global market, so we are looking at what we can do to help extend opportunities to our partners.

Also important is making sure we expand the certifications into the specialization space because another thing we hear consistently is that partners are really excited about these areas where we have a clear, differentiated solution that is ahead of the market, and they want to make sure they have the skills to be able to meet those requirements, particularly as they are taking on so many new people. High growth is a challenge.

In your opinion, what is it about Google Cloud that helps differentiate it from its competition?

I think from a technology perspective, the big things are AI and machine learning, and there's also Google's reputation around innovation overall. If you take a look at things we have done from a Kubernetes perspective, Google has really leaned in on open source and driving innovation more broadly that's aligned with Google's mission statement about making information accessible and useful to everyone around the world. Open source really fits in well with that. We clearly are the best provider of a managed Kubernetes environment for companies looking to containerize their blended environments, and companies can manage their environment in the cloud with Google technology the same way they are doing on-prem.

We have a cloud platform, and we have a lot around AI, machine learning, and things we are doing from an open-source perspective, but additionally with Google, it's about engagement and collaboration. Folks are wanting to transform their workforces, and G-Suite is a great example of part of the way they are transforming their workforces and getting more people collaborating in a different way. It's not just about moving apps to the cloud, it's really a different way to work and that’s been really interesting to me to see the way the partners are recognizing that broader value proposition.

How important a role are partners playing in helping Google bring on more enterprise business?

[Enterprise business and partners] are absolutely intertwined. I can think of one [enterprise deal] in which three different partners from around the world were involved in that particular transaction, and that’s a great example of partners really understanding what the customers want and need. In almost every single large enterprise transaction we have today, there are partners involved, and often a blend of interesting partners—like a global systems integrator, and a vertical-focused partner, or a partner with a functional expertise in Google's technology to help make sure that promise is made real for a customer.

Are there any cloud services today that Google offers that you feel partners either don't know enough about or haven't fully taken advantage of?

We have such an incredible breadth of products and there is tremendous opportunity overall, so it's pretty difficult for anyone to be as long and deep as they could be. I think particularly in areas like BigQuery there is so much going on, and from an AI and machine-learning perspective, there's so much more to do. There's an element of coming up to speed on a technology, but then it's important to step back and ask how this can transform the industry or vertical that [the partner] is in.

A lot of partners have bench strength—people that have 30 years of knowledge in a particular area—so we want to expose them from the technology perspective to the kinds of things Google can do and how it can be transformative. It's about marching out to market in a different way that will allow them to be differentiated. We want to go deeper and longer with folks that really care about the customer outcomes. It’s not about us, it's about those customer outcomes and how our technology can unlock different outcomes. A lot of table stakes in cloud is around optimizing or taking away tasks that aren't really critical. So, then it's about focusing on the stuff that would make the customer differentiated. We can check the boxes on one and two, but we are really going to kill it on number three.

What can partners expect in 2019?

[The channel] can expect a partner that is deeply committed to customer outcomes. I think the thing that companies sometimes miss with partners is that partners are trying to sell to customers over a long arc of time and are building that relationship, so they are super invested in making sure that customer gets value. These are companies that put value around doing the right thing, so we are going to make sure that customer outcome is great.

Partners also want a two-way street to engagement with the vendors they work with, and I think Google has demonstrated that in a whole variety of ways with the technology we are bringing to the table and showing who we are as a collaborative company. You can look at pieces of technology, but coupled with the ‘who we are’ part is probably the most compelling if you're looking to build a business with someone who is going to be a great partner for you.

What's Google's message to partners as 2019 approaches?

My message to partners is overwhelmingly, the time is now—you can feel the momentum. Put on your seatbelt and jump in now, because things are moving so quickly and there's a window of opportunity now to get in, or you might get left behind.