Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans

By Bob EvansBusiness News Technology

Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans episodes

April 27 SAP Excellent Q1: Blowing Past Competitors, Embarrassing Doomsayers
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I break down how SAP is outperforming Oracle, Salesforce, Workday, and Microsoft in the applications race.
Highlights
00:03 — We saw some first-quarter numbers from SAP late last week, and I think it's fascinating to see how, in the light of these very, very strong numbers from SAP, we still seem to hear about this idea that these doomsayers are saying that AI is going to destroy the enterprise apps business. That's certainly not happening.
00:33 — The three big numbers here: cloud revenue up 27%, almost $7 billion. Within that, its Cloud ERP Suite was up 30% to $6.1 billion, and looking out at contracted business not yet recognized as revenue, it calls it current cloud backlog, up 25% to well over $25 billion.
00:57 — That's pretty healthy-looking business for one that is, you know, doomed to the apocalypse and Armageddon any day now, according to some of these wizards of smart who believe that AI is going to come in and just decimate the enterprise apps business.
01:52 — The only thing I can think of that gives them this idea that the whole industry is heading for Armageddon here, they must believe that companies like SAP are unprepared for or unable to participate in the AI revolution, but that notion ignores where the data really is.
02:28 — Agentic AI is the future. Agents need data to run, and who has more and better business data than SAP? So this just confounds me.
02:43 — We continue to see SAP outperform Oracle's applications business, Workday, Salesforce, and also the apps business part of Microsoft Dynamics 365. I think this is a very strong quarter by SAP, and the future here is very bright.
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4 min
April 24Google Cloud’s Karthik Narain on Why AI Success Is Now Measured by Outcomes, Not Consumption | Cloud Wars Live
ogle Cloud Next, Cloud Wars CEO and Founder Bob Evans sits down with Karthik Narain, Chief Product and Business Officer, Google Cloud, to discuss how AI is fundamentally changing enterprise expectations. Narain explains why customers no longer judge technology providers by licenses sold or cloud consumption, but by measurable business outcomes. From forward-deployed engineers to agentic workflows and the evolving role of product design, he outlines how Google Cloud is rethinking engagement, product development, and enterprise transformation in what he calls the third major wave of technology innovation.
AI Demands Outcomes
The Big Themes:
Outcomes Replace Consumption Metrics: Narain explains that enterprises are no longer measuring technology providers by how many licenses they sell or how much cloud consumption occurs. Instead, success is now judged by outcomes delivered. Customers expect providers like Google Cloud to share equal responsibility for business results, not just provide tools and leave execution to the customer. This represents a major shift from prior eras where businesses viewed themselves as the sole owners of converting technology into value. AI’s speed and sophistication have raised expectations dramatically.

The Third Technology Wave: Narain frames today’s AI era as the third major wave of enterprise technology over the past 60 years. The first wave from mainframes through ERP, focused on codifying business processes into repeatable systems. The second wave centered on delivery model innovation, moving software into SaaS and cloud environments. The third wave is fundamentally different because the technology itself learns and evolves. Rather than giving software fixed instructions, enterprises must feed it data, context, and reasoning. This changes how software is designed and deployed.

Every Feature Must Become a Skill: Products must now be designed for both humans and AI agents. Narain explains that every feature inside enterprise software needs to be exposed as a “skill” that agents can activate directly. This means software can no longer assume a human user is the only operator. Agents must be able to trigger workflows, execute tasks, and coordinate processes independently. This changes how products are structured from the ground up.
The Big Quote: “The application’s user interface is no longer clicks and drop-downs. It is going to be prompts and agentic workflows."
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18 min
April 24Google Cloud and Tredence on Building the Agentic Enterprise | Cloud Wars Live
In this Cloud Wars conversation, Bob Evans sits down with Shub Bhowmick, CEO and Founder of Tredence, alongside Yasmeen Ahmad from Google Cloud to explore how enterprises are moving from AI applications to AI agents. Their discussion focuses on what it takes to turn intelligence into action — covering data foundations, semantic layers, agentic architectures, and the operational shifts required for businesses to scale AI successfully.
Turning AI Into Action
The Big Themes:
AI Agents Redefine Applications: Traditional AI apps assist by querying data, generating recommendations, and supporting limited workflows. AI agents, however, represent a much deeper operational shift. As Ahmad explains, agents are multi-step reasoning engines that can access multiple systems, coordinate actions, and execute entire business processes autonomously. Instead of simply helping humans decide, they can perform work across ERP systems, supply chains, and customer interactions. This changes the role of the database itself — from a storage and query engine into a reasoning engine with vector search, graph RAG, and semantic understanding. Examples like Home Depot and Danfoss show how this creates massive efficiency gains

Why Questions Require Agentic Intelligence: Shub Bhowmick draws a critical distinction between “what” questions and “why” questions. A conversational BI system can answer what happened — such as how much sales dropped — but a “why” question demands deeper reasoning. Why did sales decline? Was it pricing pressure, competitor behavior, inventory constraints, or macroeconomic events? These problems require hypothesis-driven exploration. Tredence addresses this through business semantic layers, knowledge graphs, and hypothesis banks that support open-ended reasoning.

Closed Systems Create Long-Term Risk: Bhowmick warns against enterprises rushing toward closed, inflexible platforms simply because they promise faster short-term value. While packaged solutions may accelerate deployment, they often restrict ownership, adaptability, and future innovation. In contrast, open architectures built with hyperscalers like Google Cloud allow customers to own the IP, customize solutions, and evolve as the market changes.
The Big Quote: “Gone are the days when these migrations used to take 12 to 18 months. Nowadays, you have to complete these migrations in less than three to four months.”
More from Tredence and Google Cloud:
Learn about the partnership between Tredence and Google Cloud and AI agents on Gemini Enterprise.
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39 min
April 23Andi Gutmans on Why Google Cloud’s Agentic Data Cloud Changes Everything | Cloud Wars Live
In this special episode of Cloud Wars Live from Google Cloud Next, Bob Evans speaks with Andi Gutmans about Google Cloud’s newly announced Agentic Data Cloud and what it means for enterprise customers entering the AI-driven future. Gutmans explains how businesses must rethink data platforms for an era where autonomous agents, not just people, need instant access to trusted enterprise knowledge.
The New Data Foundation
The Big Themes:
The Agentic Data Cloud Is a Reinvention: Google Cloud is not simply rebranding its existing Data Cloud, it is fundamentally redesigning it for the agentic AI era. Gutmans explains that data must evolve from being a passive repository into active business knowledge that agents can reason over. He describes this as moving from a “system of intelligence” to a “system of action.” The newly announced Agentic Data Cloud includes innovations across databases, analytics, storage, and governance so agents can securely access and act on enterprise information.

Culture Matters More Than Technology: According to Gutmans, the organizations moving fastest are the ones embracing cultural transformation, not just deploying models on top of old systems. Companies succeeding in the agentic era are rethinking how their data platforms work and how employees engage with AI. Instead of treating agents as copilots, they view every employee as an orchestrator of agents. That mindset shift drives faster ROI because it creates readiness for change and willingness to innovate.

Google’s Vertical Stack Is a Major Advantage: Gutmans says that Google Cloud is uniquely positioned because it owns the entire stack: AI infrastructure, models, and the data platform itself. This allows what he calls “closed-loop innovation” between models and data systems, where improvements in one directly enhance the other. He says many people underestimate how important that relationship is because model reasoning must evolve alongside the platform serving enterprise data. Products like BigQuery, Spanner, and Gemini benefit from Google’s decades of operating at massive scale, including multiple billion-user businesses.
The Big Quote: "We're moving from this reactive, agentic experience to agents truly being autonomous, being able to drive outcomes for the business, and that's also now steering how we're thinking about the data cloud."
More from Google Cloud:
Learn more about what's new in the Agentic Data Cloud and security in the AI era.
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17 min
April 23AI Agent & Copilot Podcast: Ryan Grant on Where to Start with AI Adoption
In this episode of the AI Agent & Copilot Podcast, Giuseppe Ianni sits down with Ryan Grant, Chief Strategy and Revenue Officer at sa.global, who shares insights on how organizations are approaching AI adoption, where they’re struggling to get started, and how industry-specific agentic solutions can drive efficiency and revenue protection. Their discussion, recorded live at the 2026 AI Agent & Copilot Summit NA, spotlights the urgency, complexity, and opportunity surrounding AI transformation.
Key Takeaways
Starting Is the Biggest Challenge: Many organizations are not lacking interest, but direction. Grant says that customers are struggling to prioritize use cases across departments. The range of entry points (from finance to customer experience) creates confusion. The key is narrowing focus and identifying high-impact starting points. Without clarity, companies risk paralysis or misaligned investments.

Industry-Specific AI Is the Real Differentiator: Grant discusses the importance of tailoring AI solutions: “what we're really trying to do… is figure out how to help those industries optimize.” Generic AI tools fall short without context. By focusing on sectors like construction, engineering, and legal, sa.global builds agents that understand workflows, billing models, and operational nuances.

AI Must Understand Your Business to Work: One of the most powerful insights: “you can go plug an agent in, but if it doesn't know your business… it's never going to work.” AI is not plug-and-play. Like a new employee, it needs training, context, and alignment with company processes. Organizations must integrate AI into their workflows thoughtfully, ensuring it reflects how they operate. This alignment is the difference between failed pilots and transformative success.
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5 min
April 23 Google Cloud: New Gemini Enterprise Leapfrogs Competition
In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I look at why Google Cloud’s new Gemini Enterprise could reshape enterprise AI and force competitors to raise their game.
Highlights
00:44 — I think we’re going to see Google Cloud leapfrog the competition with Gemini Enterprise. I believe it’s absolutely a breakthrough product — enormously impressive. I’ll have a longer, detailed article later today on cloudwars.com where I go into more depth, but let me offer a few thoughts here.
01:06 — First of all, it’s going to force all the AI and cloud players to step up to a different level. For roughly the past three and a half years — since the launch of ChatGPT 3.5, when the AI Revolution kicked off — the tech industry has released an incredible array of dazzling, powerful, highly capable, and truly breathtaking technologies. At the same time, most of those technologies have required customers to assemble everything themselves.
01:37 — Gemini Enterprise, in its new format, pulls together everything Google Cloud offers — very open, easy-to-work-with technologies from other companies, plus access to all the data customers have. That’s where I think it will really help customers who have been spending far too much on integration costs trying to rationalize their AI investments.
02:08 — Second, it connects systems of record. Google particularly called out data from applications like Workday, Salesforce, platforms such as Palantir, and ServiceNow — making it easy for customers to pull data from all those places. Industry-specific and domain-specific agents are also central to what Google Cloud is building into this new Gemini Enterprise version.
03:05 —Third, security. Google Cloud is introducing everything from an agentic security operations center to autonomous security agents that continuously look for threats, report back, and take action. This isn’t passive security — hoping nothing happens — but an active stance: getting ahead of threats.
03:56 — Finally, the powerful partner ecosystem. This has always been a major part of Google Cloud’s strategy. Thomas Kurian has made partnerships a centerpiece — not just Google Cloud technologies, but the force-multiplying effect of partners playing a huge role in what customers can now achieve with the new and improved Gemini Enterprise.
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6 min
April 22 Oracle Advances Multi-Cloud Connectivity: Faster, Simpler, More Flexible
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I explain why Oracle’s AWS partnership signals a new era of cloud interoperability.
Highlight
00:03 — Recently, my colleague Bob Evans reported on a new initiative from AWS called Interconnect multicloud aimed at enhancing the company's multi-cloud offerings. Now, Oracle has announced that it will leverage AWS Interconnect multicloud to expand its multi-cloud networking capabilities.
00:31 — Oracle is enabling high-performance connectivity between Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and AWS by connecting Oracle Interconnect with AWS Interconnect multicloud. Now, as a result, Oracle customers will gain, and I quote, access to "a fast, private, managed connection to run applications and move data seamlessly between OCI and AWS."
01:00 — This new connectivity will support both full and split-stack multi-cloud deployments, empowering customers to confidently leverage the benefits of both cloud providers without the management complexity that previously posed major challenges.
01:14 — Nathan Thomas, Senior Vice President, Product Management at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, said the following: "Oracle continues to advance multi-cloud connectivity as part of its commitment to help customers unlock flexibility, agility, and performance across clouds."
01:40 — Once again, we see Oracle at the forefront of multi-cloud connectivity, quickly integrating with a competitor's product to ensure that its customers are always in a position to realize their business ambitions, most notably in the AI space, without the issues of dispersed systems, data silos, and latency.
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3 min
April 21AI Agent & Copilot Podcast: How Solver Is Transforming Financial Planning with AI Agents
In this episode of the AI Agent & Copilot Podcast, Giuseppe Ianni is joined by Tad Remington, Chief Commercial Officer at Solver, who discusses how AI is transforming financial planning and analysis through intelligent agents.
Key Takeaways
The Rise of AI in FP&A: Remington emphasizes that AI is no longer experimental in finance, it’s operational. Organizations are increasingly relying on AI agents embedded in FP&A tools to enhance analysis and planning. As he notes, “they really like the analysis capabilities that we have built in,” highlighting strong adoption of AI-driven insights across finance teams.

Trusted Data Is the Foundation: A major differentiator for Solver is its reliance on curated, governed data. Remington explains that AI outputs are only as good as the inputs: “it works off of the reports that they’ve developed….” This ensures accuracy, security, and trust in AI-generated insights.

Autonomous Finance Is Coming Fast: One of the most forward-looking insights is the move toward autonomous agents. Remington shares, “we want to get to… the autonomous agent kind of era,” where financial processes run independently and take action without prompts, signaling a major shift in how finance teams operate.
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4 min
April 21 Google Cloud's Next in Vegas: 3 Launch Predictions
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I preview Google Cloud Next and share three bold predictions around AI security, sovereignty, and Gemini Enterprise.
Highlights
00:03 — We’ve got Google Cloud Next coming up this week in Las Vegas. The world’s number one cloud and AI provider is going to, no doubt, roll out a lot of interesting technologies, partnerships, go-to-market plans, and new ways for customers to thrive in the AI Economy.
00:31 — First, I think big launches around AI security. This has been a differentiator for Google Cloud in the whole run of the hyperscaler competition, and it's distinguished itself with Mandiant and threat intelligence capabilities. And it recently closed the acquisition of Wiz. So it's got some very good foundations there to build upon in AI security and sovereignty.
01:23 — Similarly, AI sovereignty is huge now, and it's only going to get bigger here in the AI Era, as data becomes more vital, privacy becomes more vital, security becomes more vital, and a lot of nations and regions are going to become even more specific in trying to say here's what's possible with the movement of not only data, but applications, where things have to be based.
02:08 — Too many technology vendors and customers were falling into a trap of thinking there’s a false choice, you can either be fully compliant or grow aggressively. Google Cloud says that’s a false choice and customers can do both.
03:43 — My prediction for the third big area is Gemini Enterprise, a breakthrough product with strong customer adoption, enabling companies to build agents and integrate AI into workflows at scale.
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5 min
April 20 AWS Multicloud Shows Oracle Leads and AWS Follows
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I explore the growing divide between cloud innovators and followers in the AI Era.
Highlights
00:03 — Now we see here in April of 2026 a distinction between leaders and followers in the cloud and AI markets. And this came through quite distinctly here. AWS has just launched what it calls its multi-cloud interconnect service, and it's going to be good for some customers.
00:51 — In spite of the fact that AWS cloud revenue is much, much larger than Oracle, size matters, but it is not the only differentiator. Their service is going to start with Google Cloud, and AWS is going to add both Microsoft and Oracle later this year to allow secure data exchange across these clouds.
01:42 — Oracle followed that up with what I call the Microsoft miracle, where it set up these multi-cloud partnerships with its three primary rivals — first Microsoft, then Google Cloud, then AWS — allowing customers to buy and deploy the Oracle database through those other clouds.
02:22 — As far as who is setting the agenda and driving innovation, it's very much more Oracle and Google Cloud, and AWS now is proven a follower. I can't even call them a fast follower, because it's been about three years since they followed up on this.
03:10 — In the midst of the AI revolution and the beginning of the global AI economy, it's much more important to find tech partners who help you create the future, not just improve the past, and that's why innovation that drives rapid business outcomes matters most.
03:56 — So with businesses now being in a situation where they don't have lots and lots of time to tinker and experiment and wait to see what the competitors do, they've got to move very quickly. That's why with the Cloud Wars Top 10, I've put such an emphasis on innovation that drives rapid business outcomes.
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6 min

About Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans

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Cloud Wars analyzes the major cloud vendors from the perspective of business customers. In Cloud Wars Live, Bob Evans talks with both sides about these profoundly transformative technologies, and with…