Google Cloud’s Thomas Kurian: ‘A Lot Of Anxiety’ Around Coronavirus – CRN: Technology news for channel partners and solution providers

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian noted apprehension about the unknowns surrounding the global outbreak of the deadly coronavirus as a factor in changing the cloud providers annual Next 20 conference to an online event.

With the virus, there's obviously a lot of anxiety, because people are still trying to understand...how it spreads, what its impact is, because it's still early days, Kurian told CRN on Tuesday. We've seenfrom the medical literature as well as from the WHO (World Health Organization) and the (U.S.) Centers for Disease Control (CDC), that isolation is a good vehicle to reduce the risk of spreading it. And so, rather than bring a lot of people to an auditorium, we thought that we would reach them through a digital medium.

Google Cloud announced yesterday that its upcoming Next 20 conference, which was slated for April 6-8 at San Franciscos Moscone Center, is being changed to a virtual format to limit travel amid the global outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

In an email sent to attendees registered for the conference, Google Cloud said it is transforming its premiere cloud computing event under new branding as Google Cloud Next 20: Digital Connect. The decision was made in the interests of our customers as well as our employees, Kurian told CRN at Google Clouds headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Kurian noted that while more than 30,000 people attended last years Next 19 conference in person in San Francisco, there were millions who watched it online.

Joseph Tsidulko contributed to this report.

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Google Cloud's Thomas Kurian: 'A Lot Of Anxiety' Around Coronavirus - CRN: Technology news for channel partners and solution providers