The launch of Google Public Sector comes as more public agencies turn to the cloud and ever more sophisticated software to handle a variety of tasks, and as competitor Amazon, via its own Web Services unit, strives to win more business from those governments. Even so, such moves can prove expensive and otherwise challenging for public officials.
More specifically, the new Google unit “will specialize in bringing Google Cloud technologies, including Google Cloud Platform and Google Workspace, to U.S. public-sector customers,” wrote Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, in a blog post. “Google Public Sector will provide unique products and expertise, such as Google Cloud’s data and analytics platform, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) tools, so institutions can better understand their data and automate core processes.”
Kurian said Google Cloud’s scalable and open infrastructure can help agencies “modernize their legacy information systems and build new applications that serve citizens with mission-critical reliability and scalability.”
Cybersecurity also will stand as a focus of this push, he said, adding that Google experts will help government and educational clients with secure communication and associated work. Google will also provide training to public-sector workers who need practice with digital and cloud services.
Will Grannis, head of Google Cloud’s Office of the CTO, will lead Google Public Sector until a permanent CEO for that division is appointed. Lynn Martin, a Google vice president, will report to Grannis.
Google Public Sector also will have its own board of directors, which Kurian described in the blog post as “consistent with government divisions of other technology companies.”
Kurian touted Google’s previous work with the U.S. military, including on AI and ML projects, along with various federal, state and local agencies, as proof that this company knows what it means to digitally transform government offices. Such work includes helping launch the state of New York’s streamlined unemployment application and bringing cloud-based IT infrastructure to the city of Pittsburgh. Google also recently launched a platform called Climate Insights to help public agencies as they deal with climate change.
According to the blog post, Google Public Sector will include partnerships with such organizations as Accenture Federal, Deloitte, ManTech and World Wide Technology (WWT); resellers like Carahsoft; and independent software vendors like C3.ai and SAP.
“We will continue to invest in our programs and these partners, who work closely with Google Public Sector to build and deliver technology to U.S. public-sector institutions,” Kurian wrote.
He also promoted the unit’s zero-trust infrastructure, which means the new unit can handle sensitive data for its government and educational clients. He also said that Google Cloud already has more than 100 products authorized at FedRAMP High or FedRAMP Moderate, along with Impact Level 4 certification across numerous products, “which allows U.S. government agencies to store and process controlled unclassified information across our key cloud services."
