Byline: (New Delhi) — As global cloud competition intensifies, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian has been publicly mapping out a strategy that treats India not as a peripheral market but as a central axis for cloud-AI growth, infrastructure investment and partner-led adoption. This article explains what Kurian’s playbook looks like for India, the concrete moves Google Cloud is making, and why it matters for Indian businesses and policymakers.
Lede — Strategy in plain terms
Thomas Kurian’s approach is pragmatic and multi-pronged: build local infrastructure and sovereignty options, push AI tools that solve business problems (not just academic demos), deepen partner and enterprise relationships, and align investments with local demand for compute, data residency and sustainability. Those four pillars form the backbone of how Google Cloud intends to win enterprise customers in India and nearby markets.
Concrete moves on the ground
- Expanding data-centre capacity and regional presence. Google already operates cloud regions in India (for example, Mumbai) and has said it will continue to grow capacity in its India zones to support enterprise and AI workloads. Recent reporting also links Google’s parent investments to large-scale capacity projects in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam region, where global players and local partners are planning major data-centre campuses. Those investments aim to bring more local compute, lower latency and stronger data-sovereignty options for Indian customers.
- Productising AI for enterprise use cases. Kurian has emphasised moving AI from experimental projects into business functions — customer service, sales, supply-chain automation and domain-specific agents — so companies can measure productivity or revenue impact. Google Cloud has launched business-oriented products (for example, enterprise versions of its Gemini family and agent builders) designed to plug into corporate data stores securely.
- Partner and ecosystem plays. Rather than selling only direct, Kurian’s playbook places heavy weight on partners — systems integrators, managed-service providers and ISVs — to tailor solutions for regulated industries, local languages and country-specific needs. Google has been expanding go-to-market incentives, training and channel programs to scale deployments through Indian technology services firms.
- Multicloud & enterprise neutrality. Google Cloud has also broadened technical options that let enterprises run workloads across clouds (for instance, expanded Oracle Database@Google Cloud availability), which appeals to large Indian enterprises with complex, multi-vendor estates. This reduces migration risk and helps sell Google Cloud as a pragmatic choice rather than an all-or-nothing bet.
Why India is strategic (not symbolic)
Several structural reasons explain why Kurian and Google Cloud have put India into play:
- Huge and growing digital demand. India’s enterprises and startups are rapidly adopting AI and cloud services, shifting spend from on-premises data centres to cloud platforms that can deliver advanced machine learning and analytics. Kurian has pointed to AI as a driver that is expanding the addressable market beyond traditional IT
- Data-sovereignty & latency needs. Local data centres reduce latency for customer applications and satisfy regulatory or commercial requirements around data residency — a major selling point for banks, telecoms and government agencies. Continued capacity expansion in India supports these needs.
- Talent and partner pool. India’s large IT services industry (TCS, Infosys, Wipro and many boutique firms) gives Google a ready ecosystem to train, certify and deploy cloud-AI solutions at scale. Kurian’s partner-first emphasis leverages this strength.
What this means for Indian businesses and users
- Faster access to enterprise AI: With local regions and enterprise-grade AI offerings, Indian companies can deploy latency-sensitive and regulted AI workloads closer to users, improving performance and compliance.
- More partner-driven services and job opportunities: A partner-centric go-to-market often means more subcontracting, service engagements and upskilling programs across India’s IT services ecosystem. Kurian has publicly framed AI as an augmentation tool — enhancing productivity rather than wholesale job replacement — a message that underlines investment in reskilling.
- Choice and interoperability: Multicloud integrations and third-party partnerships give Indian CIOs flexibility to adopt Google Cloud without abandoning existing investments. That appeals to large conglomerates with heterogeneous IT stacks.
Risks and constraints (facts to watch)
Kurian’s playbook is substantial but not without practical constraints:
- Power, land and regulatory approvals are material considerations for building large data-centre campuses; projects often require coordination with state governments and local utilities. Recent Indian data-centre projects highlight that these are non-trivial, multi-party efforts.
- Talent gap at scale for specialized AI roles remains a challenge; while India has deep software talent, enterprise AI deployment needs domain engineers, MLOps and data-governance specialists. Kurian and other executives have repeatedly noted workforce transition and training as a focus
- Regulatory & sovereignty policy evolution. India’s laws and guidelines on data protection, cross-border transfer and telecoms infrastructure can change and shape how cloud providers operate; enterprises must design architectures that can adapt. (This is a policy reality rather than a company prediction.)
How policymakers and Indian firms should read Kurian’s signals
- Policymakers: Investment commitments and region expansions suggest steady private capital into cloud infrastructure; enabling predictable land, power and fibre-connectivity approvals will accelerate deployment and job creation.
- Enterprises: The time to pilot measurable AI projects is now — pick high-value business processes, work with local partners for deployment, and insist on interoperability to avoid lock-in. Google’s announced tools and partner programs are geared to make such pilots practical.
Bottom line — an evergreen summary
Thomas Kurian’s playbook for India combines infrastructure build-out, enterprise-grade AI productisation, a partner-first sales model and pragmatic interoperability. For Indian businesses the opportunity is clear: faster cloud access, new AI tools and a richer partner ecosystem. For the country, these moves could deliver jobs, new digital capabilities and sizable private investment — provided infrastructure, talent and regulatory frameworks keep pace. All of these are verifiable trends today, not mere forecasts
Sources & further reading: Times of India (Visakhapatnam data-centre coverage). Economic Times (Google Cloud & AI in India, Kurian comments). India Today (Kurian interview on AI and jobs). Google Cloud — regions & locations (official). DatacenterDynamics (Oracle + Google multicloud expansion). Forbes coverage of Google Cloud Next (product/infra signals).
Also read;Virat Kohli Set for ODI Comeback in Australia Series
Last Updated on: Monday, October 13, 2025 8:44 pm by Sakethyadav | Published by: Sakethyadav on Monday, October 13, 2025 8:44 pm | News Categories: News