Google missed cloud in the same way Microsoft missed internet. Google entire product strategy is defense of Ads/Search revenues and napalming any emerging threats. Through this perspective when cloud technologies started to emerge, they didn't seem important. Then it became clear that cloud providers grow and consolidate so fast, that Google is not going to be hardware buyer #1 anymore and will lose access to best hardware discounts, threatening profitability of Ads/Search itself!
This was pivotal moment: backwards Cloud PA nobody cared about (fun story: Cloud PA was once forgotten at company-wide key result meeting, it was fun to see how couple hundreds of people watching video-cast in the auditorium looked at each other and like "meeting is over, they didn't mention or PA once, what is going on!") suddenly became the priority, was merged with TI (Tech Infrastructure) and everything became "Cloud! Cloud! Cloud!".