Google Cloud Next ‘20: OnAir and in the Cloud with Maven Wave – Infrastructure Week

Google Next ‘20: OnAir is in full swing, and while the event may be all digital this year, the sessions are still delivering innovative content, inspiring keynote speakers, and compelling breakout sessions. What’s more, the virtual format provides attendees the ability to connect with other participants and have 1:1 interactions with Google Experts, leveraging the vital knowledge needed to solve today’s evolving enterprise challenges.

Last week here at Maven Wave, we kicked off this blog series, Google Cloud Next ‘20: OnAir and in the Cloud with Maven Wave, to keep you in the know about the top happenings at the conference, and to dive deeper into each week’s focus with a related Q&A session, featuring one of our expert Mavens. If you missed the inaugural blog focusing on productivity & collaboration, click here. 

This week’s Next theme will focus on infrastructure. Among other topics, attendees will explore how the world’s largest companies are leveraging Google Cloud’s unique infrastructure to accelerate enterprise workloads and build planet-scalable solutions. 

With so many companies accelerating digital transformation timelines, spurred by the global pandemic, this topic is as timely as it is critical. For all things surrounding infrastructure, keep reading for our Q&A with John Slater, Principal Solution Engineer at Maven Wave.

Q: In the wake of the pandemic, so many enterprises are accelerating their digital transformation initiatives. How can IT leaders leverage Google Cloud Platform’s infrastructure to push these transformations forward?

Google Cloud’s global-scale distributed infrastructure allows enterprises to run and manage workloads securely and consistently. Anthos, launched just 15 months ago at Google Cloud Next ‘19, now offers the capability to extend this functionality to other public clouds such as AWS and (soon) Azure, as well as offering hybrid cloud capability with on-premise infrastructure. Businesses can deploy workloads anywhere using consistent technologies and tools, and can manage it all from a single pane of glass. This gives them the capability to respond promptly to changing business needs wherever the IT workload is running.

Q: So let’s say a customer has decided in principle to move to Google Cloud. When planning a cloud migration, what key factors must businesses consider?

Migrating workloads into the cloud is often thought of as merely moving virtual machines from VMware into a cloud-native environment, but the data is just as important a consideration for migration projects. Where does the data reside? How much data needs to move? Where should it sit after the migration? And how do you move it from on-premise to the cloud, while maintaining uptime? Maven Wave has experience with industry-leading data migration tools, such as Actifio, that help plan the movement of large volumes of data in a phased and structured manner while allowing business as usual to continue.  

Security is another crucial factor to consider. By definition, cloud computing is out in the public sphere, so care must be taken to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place from on-line threats. Google Cloud provides a lot of this protection by default, with data encrypted both at rest and in transit, and by automatically applying its own proprietary protection from threats such as denial-of-service attacks. Maven Wave has the sought-after Google Cloud Security Specialization, which means we have certified consultants with proven skills to guide customers seeking to secure their Google Cloud workloads.

Q: Speaking of security, how is Google helping customers who need to meet specialized compliance requirements?

Google has added two new offerings to its secure computing portfolio. The first is Google Cloud Confidential Computing, which offers a secure VM environment that encrypts data in use—going all the way down to the memory footprint, adding another layer of protection to Google’s already robust security capabilities. Based on the proven open-source Asylo framework, it can help customers in regulated industries ensure that they stay in compliance with the rules when handling sensitive data. 

The second innovation is Assured Workloads for Government, which allows government entities (and companies working with them) to meet strict data protection requirements without needing to deploy in a separate “government cloud.” It meets the high standards set by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) without compromising compatibility with commercial cloud workloads.

Q: Maven Wave holds the Google Cloud Partner Specialization for Infrastructure. How does this benefit customers, especially when designing and implementing a digital transformation strategy?

Maven Wave earned the Infrastructure Specialization by proving to independent auditors that we have the expertise and experience in real-world deployments to implement world-class Google Cloud environments. We have used that experience to develop streamlined programs for setting up “Cloud Foundations” in a customer’s greenfield or brownfield Google Cloud instance. We automate much of that setup to reduce both the timeline and the possibility of human error. This enables customers to deploy workloads quickly and safely in Google Cloud, improving the time-to-value of migration projects.

We have built further on our Cloud Foundations offering by introducing “Production Ready Cloud,” which goes beyond infrastructure setup to deliver an environment that is ready to put a full workload suite into live production. This includes implementation of capabilities such as backup/restore, business continuity, CI/CD pipelines for infrastructure-as-code definitions, operational readiness, and, most importantly, a fully-realized security posture.

Maven Wave’s Suggested Sessions for Google Next OnAir Infrastructure Week:

• Accelerate Your Digital Transformation through a Modern Infrastructure
• Build a Cloud Migration Factory: Building a Large Scale Migration Factory to Google Cloud
• UX Design on Black Friday: Delivering Flawless UX on Black Friday/Cyber Monday

Be sure to check back next week for the next edition of Google Cloud Next ‘20: OnAir and in the Cloud with Maven Wave. Week 4: Security will take a deep dive into how Google Cloud’s security enables enterprises to achieve a “better, safer normal” by focusing on operational security with operational simplicity while keeping costs down.