VMware Co-Founder Diane Greene Will Take Charge Of All Google's Cloud Services Businesses

Google revealed in an SEC filing Thursday that Diane Greene, a Silicon Valley power player and pioneering cloud entrepreneur, will take charge of its entire cloud services apparatus.

The hire of one of VMware's co-founders and the virtualization giant's one-time CEO signals Google isn't loosening its resolve to push into the enterprise, Google partners told CRN.

To consummate the arrangement, Google acquired Greene's startup, Bebop, a company still in stealth that's working on a cloud-based development platform for enterprise applications.

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Greene has sat on Google's board for the past three years, and will remain on the board of Alphabet, the parent company Google recently introduced.

In the new position created for her, Greene will run Google for Work, a division and branding introduced last year to encompass the Internet giant's emerging enterprise products and ambitions.

That means her team will include all -- including sales and marketing personnel -- who work for Google Cloud Platform; which encompasses App Engine and Compute Engine, Google's Platform-as-a-Service and Infrastructure-as-a-Service products; Apps, including the consumer team; Chrome for Work; Android for Work; Maps for Work; and Bebop's entire staff.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai, in a blog post that was also included as an exhibit to the SEC, wrote: "As a long-time industry veteran and co-founder and CEO of VMWare, Diane needs no introduction. Cloud computing is revolutionizing the way people live and work, and there is no better person to lead this important area."

The Form 8-K SEC filing says Greene will assume the title of senior vice president of the Mountain View, Calif.-based company.

Tony Safoian, CEO of SADA systems, a Google partner based in Los Angeles, told CRN the hiring is "a massive signal that Google continues to be super serious about Google for Work and the enterprise space in general."

The Bebop acquisition and Greene's hire make him believe Google will continue investing substantially in its enterprise cloud businesses going into 2016, Safoian said.

"Her experience and pedigree will instill an even greater vigor across all of Google for Work's products moving forward," Safoian told CRN via email.

Sam Ganga, president of government mobility solutions at DMI, a Google partner based in Bethesda, Md., noted that Google, despite its powerful computing capabilities and global resources, is currently "not the first contender for enterprise cloud decisions."

By hiring Greene, Google is sending a strong message to the industry that the company is still interested in realizing its enterprise cloud ambitions, he told CRN.

Greene was famously fired from the top job at VMware -- acquired by EMC in 2004 -- after clashing with EMC CEO Joe Tucci. After that episode in 2008, her husband, Mendel Rosenblum, also a VMware founder, resigned his position as chief scientist.

Pichai said Greene, and her team at Bebop, "will help us provide integrated cloud products at every level: end-user platforms like Android and Chromebooks, infrastructure and services in Google Cloud Platform, developer frameworks for mobile and enterprise users, and end-user applications like Gmail and Docs."

The Bebop staff, as well as Greene, will officially join Google after the acquisition closes, he said.

PUBLISHED NOV. 19, 2015