F. Scott Fitzgerald once memorably wrote that there are “no second acts in American lives.” We are about to find out if there are second acts for cloud computing providers.

When the curtain goes up for Google Cloud Next ’19 this morning in San Francisco, two questions will be foremost on the minds of attendees: What is recently hired Google Cloud Chief Executive Officer Thomas Kurian’s plan for the company? And how will Google move beyond its current 9% share of customer spend in the public cloud market to grow its enterprise business?

Looking to answer these and other questions, SiliconANGLE Media Inc. is at Next ’19 in San Francisco with exclusive commentary and interviews from its livestreaming video studio theCUBE. TheCUBE coverage will begin today at 10:30 a.m. PDT and run through Thursday, April 11. (* Disclosure below.)

The first question about Kurian’s plan will almost certainly be addressed during the conference. He is scheduled to deliver his keynote presentation on Tuesday morning.

If the few public remarks he has made since taking over from Diane Greene in November are any indication, Kurian plans to focus on strengthening Google’s sales channel and expanding partner relationships in a much-needed push to improve the company’s competitive position. Google’s 9% share of customer spend in the public cloud market remains a distant third behind Amazon Web Services Inc. at 32% and Microsoft Azure with 16%, according to a Canalys report.

Kurian’s previous career of 22 years at rival Oracle Corp. may offer a few clues as to how he might proceed at Google. In 2016, when Oracle purchased NetSuite Inc., a provider of cloud-based business management solutions for mid-market enterprises, the $9.3-billion acquisition was dropped on Kurian’s desk. Oracle’s then-president of product development proceeded to follow a strategy that propelled the subsidiary to new heights inside the firm, achieving 70% bookings growth in the quarter just prior to his departure.

The game plan included introducing artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities into NetSuite’s enterprise resource planning applications portfolio, making significant investments in the partner ecosystem and creating a customer engagement methodology.

Pipeline, partnerships and purchases

There are already indications the company will focus on the three “Ps”: pipeline, partnerships and purchasing new businesses.

Google hasn’t waited until this month to focus on the sales pipeline. In remarks during a February conference, Kurian made it clear that Google Cloud was not only expanding its sales staff, but also developing them as a resource for enterprise customers to contact for help with information technology infrastructure.

The company is also expected to make announcements during Next ’19 that will expand channel relationships through the introduction of a new managed service provider program. The new partner structure will include additional tiers and incentives to encourage participation.

Not to be ignored is the potential for a partnership that runs in the family. Thomas Kurian’s brother George is currently the chief executive officer at NetApp Inc., which has been focused on expanding its hybrid cloud footprint through its Cloud Volumes product on the Google platform.

Building relationships within the developer community will also be an important focus for Google. The company has made a number of moves over the past two years to deepen its application development portfolio, including extending its cloud-native capabilities in Kubernetes, Istio and other frameworks.

Worth noting is that one of the first key hires announced by Kurian since being named CEO was the recruitment of Amit Zavery, another former Oracle cloud executive, to run Google’s Apigee business. Apigee is an API management firm acquired by the company three years ago for $625 million.

When the competition has a sizable lead in market share, the likelihood is higher that it will take a few key acquisitions to catch up. Money will not be an issue, as Google’s parent Alphabet Inc. recently reported cash reserves in excess of $109 billion.

Again, Kurian’s track record during his time at Oracle could prove instructive for potential purchases by Google. Oracle acquired a wide range of firms over the past several years, including a number in the enterprise applications and middleware space.

By April 12, the expectation is that Google will have offered a much clearer picture for how it will improve its position as a cloud provider for the enterprise. Let the second act begin.

Speakers at Google Next ’19

Speakers at Google Next ’19 include Thomas Kurian, chief executive officer, Google Cloud; Urs Hölzle, senior vice president, technical infrastructure, Google Cloud; Michael Crowe, chief information officer, Colgate-Palmolive Co.; Kelsey Hightower, developer and open-source advocate, Google Cloud; Lukas Karlsson, cloud architect/developer advocate, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; and Sarah Patterson, senior vice president, product marketing and strategy, Salesforce Inc.

Other event speakers include David Shive, chief information officer, General Services Administration; Karen Van Kirk, vice president, viewer experience, Hulu; and Brad Zager, executive producer, executive vice president, production and operations, FOX Sports.

How to watch theCUBE interviews

We offer you various ways to watch all of theCUBE interviews that will be taking place at Google Next ’19, including theCUBE’s dedicated website and YouTube. You can also get all the coverage from this year’s event on SiliconANGLE.

TheCUBE’s dedicated website and Ustream

All of theCUBE’s exclusive interviews from Google Next ’19 will be available on theCUBE’s dedicated website. You can also watch all the interviews on the dedicated Ustream channel. All of theCUBE interviews from Next will also be loaded onto SiliconANGLE’s dedicated YouTube channel.

TheCUBE Insights podcast

SiliconANGLE also has podcasts available of archived interview sessions, available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify.

Guests who will be interviewed on theCUBE at Google Next ’19

Guests who will be interviewed on theCUBE include Joe Kava, vice president, data center operations, Google Cloud; Alison Wagonfeld, chief marketing officer, Google Cloud; Russell Warman, head of infrastructure, AutoTrader UK; Pali Bhat, vice president, product and design, serverless, Google Cloud; and Mike Iannelli, senior technical account manager, AccuWeather.

Also being interviewed are Mike Evans, vice president, business development, Red Hat; Tom Galizia, Alphabet Google Alliance Leader; Anthony Lye, senior vice president and general manager, cloud data services BU, NetApp; Eric Brewer, vice president of infrastructure/Google Fellow, Google Cloud; and many other guests.

For a complete list of theCUBE guests at Next, visit theCUBE’s event page here.

Livestream of Google Next ’19

If you can’t attend Next in person, you can watch live and on demand at Google’s event page here.

(* Disclosure: Some segments on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE are sponsored and will be noted as such. Sponsors have no editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Image: Google