Google is hosting its annual Cloud Next developer conference in San Francisco this week. While the event is still in full swing, with a mystery concert capping off most of the programming tonight, the flood of news has now subsided, so here is our list of the most important announcements from the event. Anthos What is it? Anthos is the new name of the Google Cloud Services Platform, Google’s managed service for allowing enterprises to run applications in their private data center and in Google’s cloud. Google decided to give the service a new name, Anthos, but also expanded support to AWS and Azure, its competitors’ cloud platforms. This will allow enterprises to use a single platform, running on Google’s cloud, to deploy and manage their applications on any cloud. Enterprises will get a single bill and have a single dashboard to manage their applications. All of this, unsurprisingly, is powered by containers and Kubernetes. Why does it matter? It’s still highly unusual for the big cloud competitors to launch a product that allows users to run applications on other platforms. The money, after all, is in charging fees for compute time and storage allocations. Google argues that this is something its customers want and that it solves a real problem. Google, however, is also chasing its competitors and looking for ways to differentiate its approach from them. I don’t think we’ll see AWS and Azure react with similar tools, but if they do, it’s a good thing for their customers. Open-source integrations into the Google Cloud Console What is it? Google announced that it would deeply integrate the products of a number of open-source companies into its cloud and essentially make them first-party services. These partners are Confluent, DataStax, Elastic, InfluxData, MongoDB, Neo4j and Redis Labs, with others likely to follow over time. Why does it matter? These integrations are a boon for Google Cloud customers who are likely already using some of these services. They’ll get a single bill and access to support from these companies, all while managing the services from a single console. The subtext here, though, is a bit more complicated and reveals Google’s approach to open source and puts it into contrast with AWS. Many of the companies that are participating here are highly critical of AWS’s treatment of open source and quite public about it. Google is working with them while the perception is that AWS simply uses the code and doesn’t give back. Google’s AI Platform What is it? Google sees its AI prowess as one of its main differentiators in its fight against AWS, Azure and Co. The company already offered a wide range of AI tools, ranging from developer tools and services for advanced data scientists to AutoML, a service that can automatically train models and doesn’t require a PhD. The new AI Platform offers an end-to-end solution for more advanced developers that allows them to go from ingesting data to training and testing their models, to putting them into production. The platform can also use pre-built models. Why does it matter? AI (and machine learning) is the major focus for all big cloud providers, but the developer experience leaves lots of room for improvement. Having an end-to-end solution is obviously a major step forward here and opens up the promise of machine learning to a wider range of potential users. Your Android phone is now a security key What is it? Instead of using a physical security key to enable two-factor authentication, you’ll now be able to use any Android 7+ phone as a security key, too. You set it up in your Google Account and your phone will then use Bluetooth (but without the hassle of creating a Bluetooth connection) to provide your second factor. For now, this only works with Chrome, but Google hopes to turn this into a standard that other browsers and mobile operating system vendors will also support. Google also recommends you still use a regular key as a backup for that inevitable day when you lose your phone. Why it matters? Two-factor authentication is inherently safer than just using a login and password. Systems that use SMS and push-notifications are still vulnerable to phishing attacks while security keys — and this new Android-based system uses the same standards as existing keys — prevent this by ensuring that you are on a legitimate site. This new system takes the hassle out of using a physical key and may just convince more people to use two-factor authentication. Google Cloud Code What is it? Cloud Code is a set of plugins and extensions for popular IDE’s like IntelliJ and VS Code. The general idea here is to provide developers with all of the necessary tools to build cloud-native applications — all without having to deal with any of the plumbing work and configuration that comes with that. Using Cloud Code, developers can simply write their applications like before, but then package them as cloud-native apps and ship them to a Kubernetes cluster for testing or production. Why does it matter? Writing cloud-native apps is complicated and usually involves writing complex configuration files. Cloud Code ideally makes all of this so easy that it’ll be far easier for developers — and the companies that employ them — to make this move to a modern infrastructure. Google Cloud aims at retailers What is it? The news here is that Google is launching a vertical solution that’s squarely aimed at retailers. That doesn’t sound all that earth-shattering, does it? But Google Cloud plans to offer more of these specialized solutions over time. Why does it matter? Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian told us that customers are asking for these kinds of integrated solutions that package some of the companies existing tools into integrated solutions that these enterprises can deploy. This is essentially the first time it is doing so (with maybe the exception of healthcare), but it’ll likely offer more of these over time and they could become a major factor in growing the platform’s user base. Bonus<doc-sep>Yes, the major public clouds offer a lot. But what you may not know are the limitations, and how open clouds make the difference. Elevate your enterprise data technology and strategy at Transform 2021. Throughout Google Cloud Next 2019 this week, Google execs kept repeating one number: 30 security-related announcements. We’re not sure how exactly the company is counting, but the message is clear: Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is getting more secure. The highlight was undoubtedly Android phone security keys. But that was just the beginning. The announcements range from brand new offerings to existing features hitting general availability. They span increasing visibility, detecting threats, speeding up response and remediation, mitigating data exfiltration risks, ensuring a secure software supply chain, and strengthening policy compliance. Google even tried splitting all these into three categories: security of the cloud, security in the cloud, and security services. But that’s all nonsense like the 30 figure. We’re not sure if we got all 30 announcements, but here’s a rundown of what we did get. Chrome Browser Cloud Management Announced at Google Cloud Next 2018 as a beta, Chrome Browser Cloud Management is now generally available for enterprise customers. Chrome Browser Cloud Management lets administrators manage Chrome in the cloud: Google Admin console: Manage browsers in your Windows, Mac, and Linux environments from a single location. You can also set and apply policies across browsers, and if you’re already managing Chromebooks or G Suite, access all of them from the same console. Extensions: Get a full organizational view of extension usage and drill down to the individual machine level. You can block or allow individual extensions across the entire organization, or for specific organizational groups. Browser details: Access important information about browser versions, device type, applied policies, and so on. You can also export data to other systems or tools. If you’re a G Suite, Chrome Browser Enterprise Support, Chrome Enterprise license, or Cloud Identity customer, you already have access to Chrome Browser Cloud Management in the console. Everyone else can try Chrome Browser Cloud Management simply by creating a test account. Access Transparency Google already has Access Transparency for GCP, a service that creates logs in near-real-time when GCP administrators interact with your data for support. It also has Access Approval for GCP, which allows you to explicitly approve access to your data or configurations on GCP before it happens. Now, Google is announcing Access Transparency for G Suite is generally available in G Suite Enterprise. This feature provides visibility into access of G Suite data by Google Cloud employees. The G Suite Admin Console documents each access, the reason why, and any relevant support tickets. Additionally, Access Approval is now available in beta for Google Compute Engine, Google App Engine, Google Cloud Storage, and many other services. Google is also launching a completely new product called Access Approvals. This lets you explicitly approve access beforehand. Instead of a Google engineer self-approving, requests will go to the customer, who has to approve or deny access. “We believe this is unique,” Google Cloud’s Mike Aiello declared. “And we’re very proud of this, because it’s really giving the maximum level of control to customers around what even insiders at Google do with their data.” DLP user interface and VPC Service Controls Next, Google is launching the Data Loss Prevention (DLP) user interface in beta, letting enterprises discover and monitor sensitive data at cloud scale. The interface, available from the GCP console, lets you run DLP scans in a few clicks, without any code, hardware, or VMs to manage. Your virtual private cloud (VPC) is about to get better. VPC Service Controls, now generally available, let you define a security perimeter around specific GCP resources to help mitigate data exfiltration risks. Cloud Security Command Center Google’s Cloud Security Command Center (Cloud SCC), a comprehensive security management and data risk platform for GCP, is now generally available. Cloud SCC is a single place for preventing, detecting, and responding to threats across GCP, with new services incoming: Event Threat Detection (beta) leverages Google-proprietary intelligence models to quickly detect damaging threats such as malware, crypto mining, and outgoing DDoS attacks. It scans Stackdriver logs for suspicious activity in your GCP environment, distills findings, and flags them for remediation. Security Health Analytics (alpha) automatically scans your GCP infrastructure to help surface configuration issues with public storage buckets, open firewall ports, stale encryption keys, deactivated security logging, and much more. Cloud Security Scanner (general availability for App Engine, beta for Google Kubernetes Engine and Compute Engine) detects vulnerabilities such as cross-site scripting (XSS), use of clear text passwords, and outdated libraries in your GCP applications. Security partner integrations (GCP Marketplace) with Capsule8, Cavirin, Chef, McAfee, Redlock, Stackrox, Tenable.io, and Twistlock consolidate findings and speed up response. Cloud SCC also helps you respond to threats and remediate findings by exporting incidents. The new Stackdriver Incident Response and Management tool (coming soon in beta) can track incidents. Apigee security reporting Apigee, Google Cloud’s API management platform, is getting new security reporting (coming soon in beta) to show the health and security status of your API programs. This tool is meant to thwart attackers that target APIs exposed to developers inside and outside of organizations. Apigee security reporting can identify APIs that do not adhere to security protocols and user groups that are publishing the most sensitive APIs. Findings will be accessible in the Apigee console and via API. Securing the software supply chain Google is also announcing GKE services to help build trust in your containerized software supply chain: Container Registry (in general availability soon), Google’s private Docker registry, includes vulnerability scanning, a native integration for GKE that identifies package vulnerabilities for Ubuntu, Debian, and Alpine Linux. In short, it finds vulnerabilities before your containers are deployed. Binary Authorization (in general availability soon) is a deploy-time security control that integrates with your CI/CD system, making sure container images meet your organization’s deployment requirements. Binary Authorization can be integrated with Container Registry vulnerability scanning, Cloud Key Management Service, and Cloud Security Command Center.<doc-sep>Google Cloud Next ’19: The Latest G Suite Announcements From Google’s Big Event While it may not be as exciting as an Android or hardware event, Google Cloud Next has given us a slew of announcements. The company just published details about several of the new G Suite features, improvements, and products that they talked about during the event. Let’s take a look. Microsoft Office editing First up, Office editing makes it possible to edit, comment, and collaborate on Microsoft Office files in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slide. This is pretty cool as it adds the best feature of Google’s office suite to Microsoft’s popular Office apps. Simply save an Office file to Google Drive, double-click it, and select “Open in Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides.” All changes will be saved to the original file. Google Voice for G Suite Google Voice is now available as an add-on to G Suite. Since it integrated with Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet, this makes a complete solution for communication. Google+ for G Suite rebranded to Currents As we all know, Google+ is no more, but that was only for consumers. Google+ for G Suite’s future was still up in the air. “Currents” is the replacement and it has a new look and feature set. The premise is still the same, enabling people to have discussions and interactions across their organization. Currents is launching first in beta. Hangouts Chat Accelerated Transition Program Google announced that they would transition Hangouts users to Hangouts Chat later this year. Now, they have announced a program for organizations to get a head start in making the move. They are also extending the timelines to give more time for the transition. G Suite admins can express interest in the program if they wish to get started with transitioning fully to Hangouts Chat. Live captions in Hangouts Meet Users can turn on captions from the menu and they will appear on the screen underneath the screen preview. They work on the web, devices with a Mimo touchscreen, Chromebox, and Chromebase. They are only available in English at this time. Advanced phishing and malware protection for Gmail beta A new beta program will allow G Suite admins to have more controls for anti-phishing and malware protections in Gmail. They can put emails into a “quarantine,” put automatic filters on emails with unusual attachment types, and filter options for emails that potentially spoof the domain name.To enable these beta features, go to Admin console > Menu > Apps > G Suite > Gmail > Safety. Google Assistant integration with Calendar Google Assistant integration with Calendar is nothing new for consumers, but it has been missing for G Suite users. Now, G Suite users can ask Assistant and Google Home speakers questions related to their calendars and get relevant information in return. (via VentureBeat) New AI Tools Google announced AI Platform in beta, which is an end-to-end development platform that will help teams works on machine learning projects in a collaborative way. They are also updating Cloud AutoML with a feature called AutoML Tables beta. This lets users build machine learning models on structured tubular datasets. Another new tool is AutoML Video beta, which allows developers to create custom models that can automatically classify video content. Another AutoML tool is Vision Edge, which should simplify the process of deploying high-accuracy, low-latency custom machine learning models. Another cool tool is Document Understanding AI beta. This is a server-less platform that can automatically classify and extract data from scanned physicial or digital documents. It integrates with existing products from Iron Mountain, ​Box​, DocuSign, ​Egnyte​, ​Taulia​, UiPath, ​Accenture, and others. Google is also rolling out Vision Product Search, which uses its Cloud Vision technology to enable businesses to create Google Lens-type experiences. (via VentureBeat) A lot of announcements came out of the Google Cloud Next event. You can read the full summary here with links to all the individual blog posts.<doc-sep>For the past several years, Google Cloud has hosted an annual developer conference focussed on its growing enterprise business. Cloud Next ’19 kicks off today with Day 1 announcements that are more focussed on developer services and infrastructure. New South Korea and U.S. Cloud regions Physical proximity plays an important role when offering cloud services, with Google today announcing two new Cloud regions slated to debut in 2020. A new facility in Seoul, South Korea will serve gaming customers, as well as telecommunication and information companies. Set to go live in early 2020, it is Google Cloud’s eight Asia Pacific region. Shortly after Seoul, a new Salt Lake City region with three zones will come online. The city is already a hub for data center infrastructure, with a focus on healthcare, financial services, and IT. This is the sixth region in the continental United States and reflects Cloud’s “tremendous growth.” Customers in the Western U.S. already have access to Los Angeles and Oregon. Today, 19 regions are available, with Osaka, Japan going live in the coming weeks and Jakarta, Indonesia early next year. Google has opened 15 new regions and 45 zones across 13 countries in just three years. By 2020, Google Cloud will have 23 regions around the world. Open source partnerships Google proper is responsible for TensorFlow, Kubernetes, Go, and other open source projects. The company today announced a strategic partnership with “leading open source-centric companies” focussed on data management and analytics: Confluent, DataStax, Elastic, InfluxData, MongoDB, Neo4j, and Redis Labs The goal is to let customers “use open-source technology easily and in a cloud-native way.” These services will be integrated into the Google Cloud Platform for simplified management, billing with one invoice, and support through a single ticketing system. There will also be a single UI to manage apps, with services working to optimize performance. Cloud Run Cloud Run is a new “serverless compute platform for containerized apps with portability built-in” that balances the benefits of both containers and serverless implementations. Available in beta, users can “run stateless HTTP-driven containers, without worrying about the infrastructure.” It takes care of all infrastructure management including provisioning, configuring, scaling, and managing servers. It automatically scales up or down within seconds, even down to zero depending on traffic, ensuring you pay only for the resources you actually use. Based on Knative, Cloud Run is also available on Google Kubernetes Engine. Anthos Google today renamed Cloud Services Platform, which was announced last July, to Anthos. It lets developers easily create, deploy, run, and manage applications on both on-prem hardware and the public cloud. It’s not limited to just Google’s services (Cloud Platform and Kubernetes Engine), with developers able to manage workloads running on third-party clouds like Amazon’s AWS and Microsoft Azure. Anthos lets you run your applications, unmodified, on existing on-prem hardware investments or in the public cloud, and is based on the Cloud Services Platform that we announced last year. Google today also announced Anthos Migrate in beta. It helps move existing virtual machines from on-premise or other clouds directly into GKE containers. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More. Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news:<doc-sep>
Google’s Cloud Services Platform for managing hybrid clouds that span on-premise data centers and the Google cloud is coming out of beta today. The company is also changing the product’s name to Anthos, a name that either refers to a lost Greek tragedy, the name of an obscure god in the Marvel universe or rosemary. That by itself would be interesting, but minor news. What makes this interesting is that Google also today announced that Anthos will run on third-party clouds, as well, including AWS and Azure. “We will support Anthos and AWS and Azure as well, so people get one way to manage their application and that one way works across their on-premise environments and all other clouds,” Google’s senior VP for its technical infrastructure, Urs Hölzle, explained in a press conference ahead of today’s announcement. So with Anthos, Google will offer a single managed service that will let you manage and deploy workloads across clouds, all without having to worry about the different environments and APIs. That’s a big deal and one that clearly delineates Google’s approach from its competitors’. This is Google, after all, managing your applications for you on AWS and Azure. “You can use one consistent approach — one open-source based approach — across all environments,” Hölzle said. “I can’t really stress how big a change that is in the industry, because this is really the stack for the next 20 years, meaning that it’s not really about the three different clouds that are all randomly different in small ways. This is the way that makes these three cloud — and actually on-premise environments, too — look the same.” Anthos/Google Cloud Services Platform is based on the Google Kubernetes Engine, as well as other open-source projects like the Istio service mesh. It’s also hardware agnostic, meaning that users can take their current hardware and run the service on top of that without having to immediately invest in new servers. Why is Google doing this? “We hear from our customers that multi-cloud and hybrid is really an acute pain point,” Hölzle said. He noted that containers are the enabling technology for this but that few enterprises have developed a unifying strategy to manage these deployments and that it takes expertise in all major clouds to get the most out of them. Enterprises already have major investments in their infrastructure and created relationships with their vendors, though, so it’s no surprise that Google is launching Anthos with more than 30 major hardware and software partners that range from Cisco to Dell EMC, HPE and VMware, as well as application vendors like Confluent, Datastax, Elastic, Portworx, Tigera, Splunk, GitLab, MongoDB and others. Robin.io, a data management service that offers a hyper-converged storage platform based on Kubernetes, also tells me that it worked closely with Google to develop the Anthos Storage API. “Robin Storage offers bare metal performance, powerful data management capabilities and Kubernetes-native management to support running enterprise applications on Google Cloud’s Anthos across on-premises data centers and the cloud,” said Premal Buch, CEO of Robin.io. Anthos is a subscription-based service, with the list prices starting at $10,000/month per 100 vCPU block. Enterprise prices will then be up for negotiation, though, so many customers will likely pay less. It’s one thing to use a service like this for new applications, but many enterprises already have plenty of line-of-business tools that they would like to bring to the cloud as well. For them, Google is launching the first beta of Anthos Migrate today. This service will auto-migrate VMs from on-premises or other clouds into containers in the Google Kubernetes Engine. The promise here is that this is essentially an automatic process and once the container is on Google’s platform, you’ll be able to use all of the other features that come with the Anthos platform, too. Google’s Hölzle noted that the emphasis here was on making this migration as easy as possible. “There’s no manual effort there,” he said.