Partners Cheer Google Reorg And New CEO Sundar Pichai

Google partners are cheering Monday’s surprise announcement of a massive restructuring that creates the holding company Alphabet. They said it will bring order to Google’s sprawling empire and puts focused leadership on Google and, in turn, Google Apps for Work, Search for Work and its cloud business.

As part of the restructuring, Google Co-Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will turn their day-to-day operations to Alphabet, and 11-year Google veteran Sundar Pichai will become Google’s CEO. Pichai, who will leave his current role as Google product chief, will oversee the company and take control of search, ads, maps, the Google Play Store, YouTube, Android and Google’s cloud business.

"A more focused Google under the watchful eye of Pichai will be a huge boon to the Google channel," said Tony Safoian, CEO of Los Angeles-based Google Premiere channel partner SADA systems. "It makes tons of sense. Google's brand is so strong, it's hard to tell where Google For Work starts and Google's autonomous cars and ventures ends. This brings clarity to the brand and focus to the channel."

[Related: Google Becomes Alphabet, And Alphabet Assimilates Google]

Safoian and other partners said Pichai is the right person with a passion to take the Google business platform to the next level within the enterprise. Pichai joined Google in 2004 and cut his teeth on the browser-based Google Toolbar. He then headed the launch of Google Chrome and Chrome OS. He also was instrumental in developing the Android operating system and the company’s device strategy.

’Google, or Alphabet, now has the freedom to diversify and let brands live and die on their own,’ said Katie Bisson, marketing manager for Technology Seed, a Google partner based in Salem, N.H. ’From a managed IT service perspective, if Google can focus on Google, it's a win-win for partners like us. When we talk to customers about Google there will be a greater sense of focus on business solutions from Google to our customers,’ Bisson said.

The partners CRN spoke with said they are still waiting to hear from the company's channel reps for what this officially means for Google's channel partner community. Unofficially, partners said they are being told that this move will bring increased focus and investment into the partner community.

Nevertheless, partners are uncertain how the Google Cloud Platform and Google Compute Engine will be absorbed into a new company and they said Alphabet could create a layer of bureaucracy that neutralizes some of the benefits of Google.

Partners said Pichai has a stellar reputation when it comes to consumer product leadership that they are confident will translate to the cloud side of the business.

"Google will be less about driverless cars and more about Google Apps, cloud and search," Safoian said. "I didn't see a major reorg coming. But now that it's here, I think it's a good thing.

PUBLISHED AUG. 11, 2015