What do the NCAA, high school students, and Google have in common? A commitment to community and innovation. During Google Cloud Next 2019, Google Cloud rolled out a variety of new services and partnerships as it continues efforts to stake out a leading position in cloud and attract more enterprise customers. These key partnerships, including Google’s team-up with the NCAA, underscore Google’s stated mission to create strategic partnerships to build effective cloud solutions.

In the thick of this work is Alison Wagonfeld (pictured), chief marketing officer of Google Cloud.

“The broad theme [at Google Cloud Next] is ‘a cloud like no other,’ because we’ve introduced a lot of new, different features and products and programs,” Wagonfeld said. “But it’s also a cloud like no other because it’s about the community that’s here. And it’s truly a partnership with our customers and our partners about building this cloud together. And we see the community as a really key part of that.”

Wagonfeld spoke with John Furrier (@furrier) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Google Cloud Next event in San Francisco. They discussed Google Cloud’s goals and objectives for community and customer-driven solutions for navigating the cloud, as well as Google’s recent team-up with the NCAA (see the full interview with transcript here). 

Focusing on industry innovation and creating community

So how is Google Cloud’s commitment to community playing out? First and foremost, it’s about making sure that every customer is successful with their customers, and there are three core parts to this, according to Wagonfeld. One is Google’s commitment to building a solid infrastructure, two is the right applications to help with digital transformation, and three is making sure every industry has what it needs to succeed in the cloud landscape.

“We want to make sure that we’re really developing the right applications with the right solutions and have a deep expertise that companies are looking for so that we can really partner with them and really, truly be innovative,” Wagonfeld said.

As an example, Google Cloud has had a two-year ongoing partnership with the NCAA. Google has been analyzing 80 years worth of data to help the NCAA understand their players, coaches and teams better. For instance, data was collected and used to create brackets and enhance the fan experience. This year, Google even brought in college students and helped them learn how to make predictions using data. Those predictions were shared during March Madness — which helped the NCAA meaningfully connect with their fanbase in an unusual way, Wagonfeld explained.

“We had some predictions about how many different times … the ball will go back and forth between teams. We had predictions about three-pointers. So it’s been really fun,” Wagonfeld stated.

And more customers are sharing their voices. This year, Google Cloud had more than 400 customers speaking at Google Cloud Next sharing stories of how they’re using cloud innovations. While a few years ago, companies were wrestling with how to implement cloud, now more and more customers have stories to share.

“Now they’re making real … company decisions using our technology,” Wagonfeld said. “They’ve made a lot of progress.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Google Cloud Next event. 

Photo: SiliconANGLE