Google reveals a fresh wave of cloud innovation at Cloud Next 2022

Cloud adoption continues at an intense pace. However, adoption is evolving to reflect a shift in operational mindset that requires the business, the hyperscaler, and the services partners to work in lockstep to be successful. See Tom Reuner’s HFS Horizons: Cloud Native Transformation to learn from the experiences of organizations that have not only moved workloads into the cloud but also transformed their operating—or even business—model. The latest from Google’s cloud team should interest both executives and services firms alike in their efforts to tackle data, infrastructure, security, and artificial intelligence.

It is raining clouds at Google’s cloud lab

“This year’s event takes place at an inflection point in the cloud industry.” Thomas Kurian’s remark at the kick-off of the Google Cloud Next 2022 event indicates a wave of cloud innovations from the tech giant. He mentioned that cloud innovations could help businesses embrace openness and interoperability, further highlighting that the cloud is a business and technology shift, not one or the other.

Google is working on solutions that leverage data and artificial intelligence through an open, unified, and intelligent cloud. Several announcements caught HFS’ attention:

• An open data cloud enables customers to utilize data from any source and of any format across cloud providers and platforms of their choice: Notable solutions announced include Looker Studio, Translation Hub, and Vertex AI Vision.
• Open infrastructure cloud and migration updates make it easy for organizations of all types and sizes to run on Google Cloud, at the edge, or in their data centers: Five new Google Cloud regions to be set up in Austria, Greece, Norway, South Africa, and Sweden. Notable solutions are the C3 machines series for workload optimization, Anthos enhancements, Dual Run, Migration Center, and OpenXLA Project.
• A trusted cloud infrastructure includes advanced security: With the acquisition of Mandiant and launches of new products, partnerships, and solutions like Chronicle Security Operations, Confidential Space, Sovereign Cloud, and Software Delivery Shield, Google is a step ahead, helping customers at every stage of security lifecycle.
• The collaboration hub is AI-powered: Google’s innovation around Workspace includes adaptive framing with AI-powered cameras enabling immersive connections, Smart Canvas with custom building blocks in Google Docs for third-party applications, new data loss prevention (DLP) rules for chat, and extension of client-side encryption to Gmail and calendar, and new APIs for Meet and Chat.
• Google is partnering with Coinbase: Google wants to keep pace with the growing momentum of the Web3 ecosystem. It recently partnered with Nansen, BNB Chain, Sky Mavis, and NEAR Protocol. At Next, Coinbase signed up Google Cloud to build exchange and data services.

With a blooming partner ecosystem and customer ties, Google Cloud is preparing to aggressively close gaps between itself and AWS and Azure

HFS Pulse data continues to reflect a three-horse race in the cloud, with Google surging from behind to deliver compelling solutions rivaling those of AWS and Azure. Based on the announcements we’ve seen, we expect Google to continue bolstering its strengths in AI and data. However, there is still room for improvement in application support, service management, and business continuity. While its efforts here are improving, buyers and partners will likely need to invest in some of their own efforts in these areas to cover all the bases.

From a partnership perspective, Google Cloud announced strategic partnerships with Accenture and HCLTech. These partnerships build on how services firms can merge hyperscalers’ capabilities with the domain-centric intellectual property of services providers. Customers like Snap, T-Mobile, and Wayfair continue to put their trust in Google Cloud’s expertise in data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning and expand the ongoing partnership. Rite Aid signed up with Google Cloud for a multi-year technology partnership that will help its customers with expanded and personalized access to the company’s pharmacists, an enhanced online experience, and intelligent decision-support systems—powered via Google Cloud technologies.

The Bottom Line: Google’s new suite of products and solutions will continue to lend a helping hand in organizations’ impactful and sustainable digital transformation.

Google Cloud is a platform worth deploying across nearly every industry. Banks use it to run faster risk simulations, whereas automotive companies use it to provide software updates to customers automatically and add new features or upgrade existing ones. The Next event gives food for thought to the data decision-makers, developers, architects, IT teams, and cybersecurity experts on adopting Google and how it fits into their hybrid and multi-cloud business needs.