Google Cloud Next 2021 Recap: Solving For What’s Next

As an industry leader, Google has never shied away from looking toward the future, and that certainly rang true at Google Cloud Next 2021. With the event tagline, “Solving for what’s next,” Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian took the stage to share exactly how Google is enabling companies to do just that.

He broke this concept down into five key themes during the keynote session:

• using the power of data to its full potential
• strengthening technology infrastructure
• enabling hybrid and remote teams for the future of work
• keeping systems and user data safe and secure
• and addressing the most pressing systemic and societal needs

The message was clear: digitization isn’t a far-off future concept anymore; it’s the present state. And it’s key to solving many of society’s most pressing issues, such as carbon emissions, healthcare disparity, remote work, etc. Fortunately, Google Cloud is providing all industries with the tools to expedite their digital journeys. Read on for the major highlights and announcements from the virtual event.

Using the Power of Data to its Full Potential

Google is strengthening the power of its data cloud to help customers simplify their approach to data and gain greater insights. Two major announcements at Next will make huge waves in the way data is analyzed and machine learning (ML) is deployed with: Vertex AI Workbench and BigQuery Omni.

Vertex AI Workbench accelerates time-to-value for data scientists and their organizations by enabling them to build and deploy ML models within a single interface. This will mean huge time savings for data scientists, as they will be able to build and train models five times faster than on traditional notebooks.

BigQuery Omni is changing the way customers can use data by allowing cross-platform data analysis between Google Cloud, AWS, and Azure. This multi-cloud solution will help break down traditional silos faced by large organizations without needing to migrate any data.

Strengthening Technology Infrastructure

For businesses who are looking to accelerate their cloud adoption but are held back by workloads that cannot immediately move to the cloud, Google has a new solution: Google Distributed Cloud. Built on Anthos, this portfolio of software and hardware solutions will help organizations restricted by compliance needs or data-processing requirements take full advantage of cloud capabilities by extending cloud infrastructure to the edge. Organizations can run Google Distributed Cloud across multiple locations, including Google’s network edge, operator edge, customer edge, and customer data centers.

Google also unveiled the Google Cloud Cortex Framework at Next, which offers templatized cloud solutions for specific use cases and business scenarios. This option will allow for faster, simpler, and more cost-effective SAP innovation. Atos is excited to be included as a launch partner for Google Cloud Cortex Framework to enable customers to more rapidly deploy and drive value for their organizations. Users will be able to take advantage of a rich library of templates for SAP environments as well as plug-and-play Looker dashboard templates, making it easier to get up and running with cloud modernization.

Enabling Hybrid and Remote Teams for the Future of Work

As hybrid and remote work have become the “new normal,” Google Workspace is making it even easier for dispersed teams to stay connected and engaged. Google announced its AppSheet integration into Gmail, which will allow users to save time with custom automation and apps that require no coding experience.

There’s also a new Jira integration for Google Chat and Spaces, which will enable users to create new tickets, see actionable previews, and monitor issues. And additional features detailed in the next section will strengthen security, no matter where workers are located.

Keeping Systems and User Data Safe and Secure

Remote work has brought with it a whole new set of security challenges. To account for that, Google developed its new Work Safer offering, which will help organizations implement a cloud-first, zero-trust security model to protect against phishing, malware, ransomware, and other cyberattacks.

Additional Google Workspace security enhancements include Client-side encryption for Google Meet, Data Loss Prevention for Chat, Drive labels, and additional protections against abusive content and behavior on the platform.

Addressing the Most Pressing Systemic and Societal Needs

Google is committed to going carbon-free by 2030, and now they’re extending their efforts to help customers understand and lessen their own carbon footprints. With their new Carbon Footprint tool, customers will be able to measure, track and report on the gross carbon emissions associated with the electricity of their Google Cloud Platform (GCP) usage.

Taking it a step further, Atos can help customers lessen their carbon footprint with deeper insights into the information provided by the Google Carbon Footprint reporting. Atos feeds emissions data from the Google tool into our Decarbonization Data Platform, demonstrating potential emissions reductions from GCP to customers. This reporting opens up new levels of emissions transparency, trajectory planning, and data insight to support our customers in meeting, and potentially accelerating towards, their climate goals.

Additionally, this year, Google honored several customers with its inaugural Google Cloud Customer Awards. Among the honorees was The University of Texas at Austin, which was recognized for outstanding work in combating the opioid crisis. Using the power of Google Cloud, the Dell Medical School and the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin partnered with Maven Wave to create an interdisciplinary team that developed a unique platform that directly assists individuals who provide resources to those impacted by this issue.

As a proud Google Cloud Partner, Maven Wave and Atos were honored to take part in several sessions at this year’s event. If you missed any of the sessions, you can check the recordings out below:

• How CommonSpirit Health Enabled Remote Collaboration & Care
• ​​How Google Cloud Enables Accessible Healthcare for All
• Making Legacy Data Insights Accessible to Anyone, Any Time
• Driving Outcomes with Predictive Maintenance
• Mainframe to Google Transition for Financial Services
• Redefining Collaboration Across the Continuum of Care

This year’s event heralded some incredible achievements from Google Cloud, and we’re so excited to see what the future holds as we, “solve for what’s next.” If you didn’t get a chance to attend, you can still sign up and access all of the event recordings.

No matter where you’re at on your cloud journey, as a Google Cloud Premier Partner, Maven Wave can help. With 11 Google Cloud Partner Specializations, we have the expertise to assist with your transformation. If you’re interested in learning more, check out our services or contact us to schedule a time to connect with our experts.