Ready for Google Cloud Next 2021? Here’s a Look at the Big News
See what the cloud computing provider has in store at this year’s event, all with the channel in mind.
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One of the most important areas where Google Cloud is delivering at Google Cloud Next 2021 pertains to cybersecurity. Fears and concerns “continue to grow in the wake of critical attacks,” said Phil Venables, Google Cloud’s chief information security officer. He was referring to the string of breaches cyber criminals have been raining down on private business and governments.
Problem is, “putting Band-Aids on legacy infrastructure is no longer helpful or productive,” Venables added.
Google Cloud’s answer lies is what it calls invisible security, he said. With that, Venables debuted the Google Cloud Cybersecurity Action Team. These Google Cloud Experts will support the security and digital transformation of governments, critical infrastructure, enterprises and small business. They will serve as guides, providing advisory services. They will also offer trust and compliance, threat intelligence and incident response, and solutions and engineering.
And not to worry: Managed security service providers and similar Google Cloud partners will have a role to play.
“Inevitably we’ll be working with more partners,” Venables said.
On the whole, Google intends to form “the world’s premier security advisory team,” he said. And the reason why is pretty simple.
“Security is a team sport,” Venables said. “Shared responsibility evolves to what we call ‘shared fate.'”
Get the scoop on another security-centric platform on the next slide.
In addition to the Cybersecurity Action Team, Google Cloud is announcing Work Safer. The program combines Google Workspace with technologies from vendors including reCaptcha, BeyondCorp, CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks. The goal is to help organizations of all types and sizes to better protect themselves from cybersecurity threats.
“Customers are not on the security journey alone,” Venables said.
Like many of its peers, Google Cloud aims to achieve carbon-neutral and, eventually, zero-carbon emissions.
“Fostering sustainability at scale is a key component of our mission,” said Jen Bennett, technical director, office of the CTO. In fact, she added, “It’s clear that sustainability is top of mind for every CEO and board.”
With that in mind, Google Cloud this week is debuting new tools, integrations and partnerships that speak to sustainability. More on the next slide.
Google Cloud Next 2021 will see the introduction of carbon-focused components. First, there’s Carbon Footprint reporting. The addition will apply across every customer in the cloud console. The details will show “an accurate and actionable report” of an organization’s cloud-related carbon footprint, Google Cloud said.
Next, Google Cloud will alert users to all idle cloud instances and the associated carbon footprint. Deleting those instances will cut down on the cloud carbon footprint. If the IT team isn’t ready to erase the instance, the Unattended Project Recommender API will help. It’ll estimate the carbon emissions an organization will save by removing idle resources.
The changes come as the company intends to run “the cleanest cloud in the industry,” Bennett said.
Data and application partners who help organizations with sustainability will want to keep an eye on this one. Google Cloud is launching a new initiative with those ISVs to help clients make data-driven decisions with BigQuery and Google Earth Engine products (more to come on that in a moment).
Planet, Carto, Climate Engine, Geotab and NGIS are the first ISVs to bring applications and more than 50 petabytes of satellite imagery, demographics, mobility and telematics data to Google Cloud for this effort. Bennett said organizations can take advantage of the resources to do responsible commodity sourcing, carbon emissions reduction and sustainable land management.
Speaking of Google Earth Engine, it’ll become available for select enterprise customers. They will use it to combine cloud computing, satellite imagery and AI — all to lower the amount of carbon they produce.
All in all, Bennett said, Google Cloud is “in a unique position” to help improve global sustainability.
Digital transformation reigns as an industry concept and buzzword, but that doesn’t mean all organizations have jumped on board. Knowing that, Google Cloud hopes to address end user reluctance to adopt cloud. At Google Cloud Next 2021, the company introduced Google Cloud Distributed Edge and Google Distributed Cloud Hosted. Each of these falls under the Google Distributed Cloud umbrella. (As a reminder, Google Distributed Cloud, built on Anthos, delivers fully managed infrastructure.)
With the edge version, customers can get Google Cloud infrastructure at the edge, but without having to fret deployment or administration. Instead, they can “focus on applications and business initiatives,” said Sachin Gupta, vice president and general manager of infrastructure at Google Cloud. “They can just leave the complexity to us.”
Cloud Edge is available in preview. Launch partners include Cisco, Dell, HPE and NetApp.
Cloud Hosted, meanwhile, builds on Google Cloud’s digital sovereignty vision. It really targets European users. The European Union has tightened requirements on companies to protect data and privacy. U.S.-based firms, which do not face such stringencies at home, have had to develop the requisite safeguards — a constant work in progress. Cloud Hosted will deliver autonomy over infrastructure and data, Google Cloud said. It will enter preview mode in the first half of next year.
Anthos-certified value-added resellers will be key to these initiatives.
Google Workspace has provided a bit of a productivity haven amid COVID-19. And the need for easy-to-use platforms will not fade even as the pandemic wanes. Hybrid work represents the new normal for organizations — and it will invite continued ransomware and other cybersecurity threats.
As such, Google is bulking up its Workspace platform with new Jira integration for Google Chat and Google Spaces. The Atlassian-delivered technology will let users create new and monitor new tickets, among other capabilities. There’s also a new zero-trust approach to identity — a crucial consideration as hackers worldwide seek to exploit businesses and government agencies.
Speaking of security, expect client-side encryption for Meet, DLP for Chat and improved classification for Google Drive labels. To that last point, users will be able to classify files based on their sensitivity. And, last of all, AppSheet in Gmail will feature no-code apps and automation — end users without development expertise can create the resources they need the way they need them.
All this, said Javier Soltero, vice president and general manager Google Workspace, “is a powerful example of how developers can build completely new experiences.”
On top of the Workspace additions, Google Cloud will announce a package it’s calling Intelligent Products Essentials. The idea is to help manufacturers build AI-powered smart products, faster. Examples would include products that adapt to their owners, update features over-the-air using AI at the edge and provide customer insights using analytics in the cloud, Google Cloud said.
Finally, Google Cloud is enhancing Apache Spark on Google Cloud, BigQuery Omni GA, Vertex AI Workbench, and more. With Spark, in particular, organizations “can finally consume it in a cloud-native way,” said Gerrit Kazmaier, vice president and general manager for Database, Data Analytics & Looker at Google.
Finally, Google Cloud is enhancing Apache Spark on Google Cloud, BigQuery Omni GA, Vertex AI Workbench, and more. With Spark, in particular, organizations “can finally consume it in a cloud-native way,” said Gerrit Kazmaier, vice president and general manager for Database, Data Analytics & Looker at Google.
Google Cloud Next 2021 rolls onto laptops and tablets worldwide on Tuesday. For the second year in a row, the event is taking place virtually because of COVID-19. Even so, that’s not stopping Google Cloud from announcing a raft of enhancements. Last week, the third-largest public cloud computing provider gave media a sneak peek into the changes CEO Thomas Kurian and other executives will discuss this week during Next 2021.
The core takeaway for managed service providers, value-added resellers, consultants, ISVs and other partners is that Google Cloud remains dedicated to the channel. All of the changes it’s announcing will, in some way, apply across the partner ecosystem.
Google’s Kevin Ichhpurani
“Google Cloud is a partner-first business,” said Kevin Ichhpurani, corporate vice president, global ecosystem at Google Cloud. “We’re committed to working with partners across all product areas and industries, to providing customers with choice, and to our goal of involving partners in 100% of customer engagements.”
Partner Deals Growing
Kirsten Kliphouse, North America president for Google Cloud, agreed. In the first half of this year, she said, “partners were involved in six times as many eight-figure deals as they were in 2018.”
Google Cloud’s Kirsten Kliphouse
The overarching reason? Organizations keep shifting to digital business models. Retailers are implementing more ecommerce. Health care institutions are adopting more telehealth. Manufacturers are deploying more smart resources. Those serve as just three examples of the ways enterprises, small businesses, nonprofits and governments are changing their strategies in the era of cloud. COVID-19, of course, has proven no small contributor to the pace of that change, but the shift was occurring prior to the pandemic.
Google Cloud is looking ahead to surging cloud demand — with the channel in mind. See our slideshow above to check out the additions and resources debuting this week at Google Cloud Next 2021.
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