The latest management shift at Google could herald a major evolution of its cloud computing strategy.

CRN, an outlet geared toward technology product resellers, reported on Thursday that the search giant has tapped Bertrand Yansouni (pictured) as its new head of global channel operations. The appointment comes just three months after Google hired the executive to handle partner relations for its infrastructure- and platform-as-a-service group.

Far behind leader Amazon Web Services and No. 2 Microsoft Azure, Google has been making a concerted push to enterprises to use its cloud services. It has steadily added features that appeal to enterprise customers, such as a cloud audit logging tool this week. It has also launched a flurry of new data center regions in new regions in India, Ohio, Canada, China and the U.K.

Yansouni can be expected to keep concentrating his efforts on the company’s cloud offerings, but with a broadened focus that will also include G Suite and related products. He’ll report to Tariq Shaukat, president of customers at Google Cloud.

Yansouni’s connections to Diane Greene, who joined in late 2015 as senior vice president in charge of Google’s cloud and enterprise businesses, go years back. The two executives have a lot history of working together all the way back to their time on VMware Inc.’s leadership team in the early 2000s. Yansouni served as director of channel sales at the virtualization giant while Greene, who co-founded the company with her husband, was chief executive.

Yansouni later became the executive vice president of field operations at development tooling producer Coverity Inc. and more recently worked in a similar capacity at Cloudera Inc. His extensive experience in managing technology alliances should be a major asset for Greene as she works to make Google’s public cloud more competitive.

A strong partner ecosystem is essential to competing in the cutthroat infrastructure-as-a-service market. Amazon.com Inc. relies on third parties to provide specialized capabilities that its platform does not support natively and help customers with its deployments.

Despite placing a smaller emphasis on the channel so far, Google’s partner ecosystem has similarly proved to be a major boon. A startup called SoftWatch Ltd., for instance, is helping the search giant lure away Office customers with a service that can quickly identify opportunities to reduce subscription costs. Under Yansouni’s leadership, partners can be expected to take an even more central role in the Google’s cloud efforts.

CRN cited channel sources as saying that Yansouni has already started meeting with partners. He took over the reins from Murali Sitaram, who joined Google in 2014 after spending seven years with Cisco Systems Inc.’s collaboration business.

Image courtesy of Janett Morss