James is editor in chief of TechForge Media, with a passion for how technologies influence business and several Mobile World Congress events under his belt. James has interviewed a variety of leading figures in his career, from former Mafia boss Michael Franzese, to Steve Wozniak, and Jean Michel Jarre. James can be found tweeting at @James_T_Bourne.
Google Cloud is looking for a business development manager based in China focused on blockchain technologies.
According to a LinkedIn job advert posted a week ago, the ideal candidate is expected to have a decade of experience selling infrastructure software, databases, analytic tools or applications software, and knowledge of C-suite dealings, among other qualifications.
The word ‘blockchain’ itself, perhaps wisely, does not appear in the posting itself, only noting ‘knowledge of the specific industry’ would be preferred. The applicant will expect to ‘actively understand each customer’s technology footprint, strategic growth plans and business drivers, technology strategy and landscape’, in the words of the advert – of which blockchain presumably plays a large part.
Google Cloud’s targeting of blockchain is an interesting one, compared with its hyperscaler cloud rivals. The company does offer blockchain services to enterprises – such as being able to build hybrid blockchain and cloud applications with Ethereum – but the company is less recognised when it comes to managed blockchain. A report from Everest Group this time last year placed Alibaba Cloud, AWS, IBM, Microsoft Azure, Oracle and SAP at the summit, with Google nowhere to be seen.
The company does have various partnerships in place, however. In May, Google Cloud joined the enterprise program of blockchain-based video delivery network Theta Labs, providing ‘stability, reliability and security’ to the network. In February, Google joined the Hedera Governing Council, with Hedera Hashgraph choosing Google Cloud as its preferred cloud provider.
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