Well, Urs actually gave answer at all-hands meeting, when everything became “cloud, cloud, cloud”. Clouds grow so fast, that Google would eventually stop bein

Well, Urs actually gave answer at all-hands meeting, when everything became “cloud, cloud, cloud”. Clouds grow so fast, that Google would eventually stop being hardware purchaser #1 in the world, loose best discounts, which would make Search/Ads unprofitable. So there was no choose but to join cloud arms-race. But of course it was too late. It was essentially IE moment for Google.