Intel Data Center Bigwig Diane Bryant Joins Google Cloud As COO

Intel top executive Diane Bryant has jumped ship to join Google as the new chief operating officer of its cloud business, the company said in a blog post Thursday.

’Diane’s strategic acumen, technical knowledge and client focus will prove invaluable as we accelerate the scale and reach of Google Cloud,’ said Diane Greene, senior vice president at Google Cloud, in a blog post.

’Google Cloud is the most technologically advanced, most highly available, and most open cloud in the world. We are growing at an extraordinary rate as we enable businesses to become smarter with data, increase their agility, collaborate and secure their information,’ she said.

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The longtime Intel employee was recently promoted in April to group president of the Data Center Group, which generated $17 billion in revenue in 2016 and has been one of Intel’s areas of growth as the company continues its restructuring efforts to become less dependent on its traditional PC market, and more of a data-driven company.

Previously, Bryant was Intel’s corporate vice president and chief information officer, where she was responsible for corporatewide information technology solutions and services.

While Bryant was key to expanding the business to focus on cloud computing, network virtualization and the adoption of artificial intelligence solutions, Intel in May said that she would take a leave of absence from the company and would be replaced by Client Computing Group executive Navin Shenoy.

Bryant, who worked over the past few years to transform the Data Center Group from a server-centric business to one that spans servers, network, and storage across all end-user segments, joins a growing list of top-level executives – like former Client Compute Group Senior Vice President Kirk Skuagen – who have left the Intel over the past year.

Google, for its part, will benefit from the hire as a significant "investment in building an enterprise practice," said Aric Bandy, president of Agosto, a Minneapolis-based Google partner.

’Diane [Greene] has brought in a number of outside individuals to move in a direction of driving the Google Cloud division further into a leading contender for enterprises,’ he said. ’This is positioning Google as a go-to for the enterprise.’