The Invisible Cloud: How this Googler keeps the internet moving worldwide

For many people, the cloud is kind of invisible: Computing comes over the Internet, and out from a plug in the wall. You probably see it a little differently.   

We see the guts. There are machines getting made, warehouses, data centers, forklifts, trucks, air freight. It's different around the world, depending on what customers in different locations need. 

Google Cloud's leg up is that we design, build and deploy the majority of what we run, so we can support key customers in growth markets like Africa and the Asia-Pacific region in ways our competitors can't. We can build entirely new things and also outfit our data centers to meet the demand a lot quicker. 

Tell us about coming to Google.

I grew up in Trinidad & Tobago, where my mom was the cook at an insurance company's employee cafeteria. There were always different kinds of people coming through from other countries, so it was pretty diverse. I moved to the US to attend Howard University, and later got a MBA there. I started doing supply chain work for IBM about 20 years ago. 

Then I moved into Oil & Gas first at BP, then into a Refinery when I got the call from Google. 

How was it, starting your job at Google Cloud in the pandemic?

There are now thousands of us here who  started during COVID. Like a lot of Nooglers, I had some imposter syndrome – "I can't believe I'm here!" – but for me there was a lot of work to do right away. Demand for cloud services skyrocketed, which meant building up data centers and the warehouses to support them when the  supply chain wasn’t optimal. We were shipping by plane, elevating and upskilling people with remote learning, seeing that people could work safely in the warehouses. People acted brilliantly, and as a team we recognized all this great effort. 

It was a year before I had a badge or I was in a Google office. Work from home was great for learning the ropes and building confidence, but when I came to Mountain View, I finally felt like a Googler.

You coordinate a global system. What's that been like?

It can be a lot of fun. Something new is happening almost every day, and you have to react quickly in order for our operations people to continue doing their jobs. We're most of the way to having this work perfectly, but like with a lot of things, getting that bit right can go on forever.