Can Google Make Its Mark on the Cloud?

Google was once a cloud pioneer, having spent years stringing together data centers to support its search business. But it squandered that lead by allowing others to market such infrastructure as a service first. Alphabet, Google’s parent, is now intent on narrowing the gap with Amazon.com and Microsoft, in large part because it needs to build a reliable revenue stream that doesn’t come from ads.

Last November, Alphabet asked board member Diane Greene to piece together the fragments of its cloud business. Greene, the co-founder and former chief executive officer of VMware, which develops cloud systems for companies, has unified several departments into a single unit called Google Cloud. In June she hired Tariq Shaukat to lead its growing sales team. Shaukat’s previous job was chief commercial officer for Caesars Entertainment in Las Vegas, making him a bit of an odd duck at a company populated by computer engineers.