What’s Up in the Cloud: Google Makes Moves in Travel Industry, AppSheet Acquisition, Securing PHI in the Cloud, More

Since our last cloud news update, the holidays have come and gone and we’ve welcomed the start of a new decade. Now that we’re fully in the swing of 2020, Google Cloud is back at it, too, with product announcements, customer news, and more. So what’s new? Exciting customer projects in the travel, retail, and healthcare industries, a recent acquisition, new product features, and more. Read on for a round-up of the latest in the Google Cloud ecosystem:

• Lufthansa Group and Sabre bring new travel industry business to Google: Just this week, Google Cloud announced two new customers in the travel industry. Aviation leader Lufthansa Group has selected Google Cloud to optimize its airline operations to help prevent flight delays. Leading software and technology company Sabre also signed a 10-year strategic partnership with Google Cloud to provide operational agility and develop new services.
• Securing protected health information (PHI) in the cloud: With more healthcare organizations consider moving to the cloud, security concerns arise. Healthcare systems are under government mandates to secure protected health information (PHI) in their own servers and the cloud. Our new white paper explains how Google Cloud protects PHI to alleviate these concerns.
• Google acquires no-code application development platform AppSheet: Google has acquired AppSheet, a platform that enables enterprises to create their own applications without needing a coder. The platform includes no-code development, workflow automation, application integration, and API management.
• Google provides Wayfair with the ability to scale with hybrid-cloud: E-commerce home goods supplier Wayfair has chosen Google for its hybrid-cloud strategy to provide the scalability it needs on big sales days, such as Black Friday. They are using Google Cloud’s 100 Gbps Dedicated Interconnect for a direct physical connection between their on-prem network and Google’s network.
• FDA works with Google Cloud on MyStudies platform: The FDA brought in Google Cloud to work on its existing MyStudies platform, specifically for Google Cloud’s built-in security features and to secure the personally identifiable information on the platform. MyStudies is an open-source platform that supports drug, biologic and device organizations in collecting and reporting data for regulatory submissions.
• Google introduces new Archive class for Cloud Storage: Google has created a new Archive class for Cloud Storage for data retention with lower pricing. Intended for data that is stored for over a year and accessed less than once a year, the pricing starts at $0.0012 per GB per month, which comes out to $1.23 per TB per month.
• How to use AutoML Tables from a Jupyter Notebook: A new Google Cloud blog article explains how to use AutoML Tables SDK within a Jupyter Notebook. It details how to understand the data, set up the Notebook environment, configure the AutoML Tables SDK, import the data, and train, evaluate, deploy and predict the model.
• New ability to use phones as security keys for 2-Step Verification: Users can now use their phones as security keys for an extra layer of protection to prevent phishing attempts. To enable this feature, iPhone users need to download the Google Smart Lock app and Android users can visit g.co/advancedprotection.
• New performance benchmarking tool from Google: Google has introduced an open-source tool called PerfKit Benchmarker to make the process of benchmarking network performance before migrating workloads to the cloud easier. It automates network set-up, the provisioning of VMs, and test runs.

Come back to our blog in a few weeks for more updates from Maven Wave and Google Cloud. If you’re interested in learning more about how your organization can benefit from GCP, subscribe to our newsletter to get our latest white papers, customer stories, blogs, and upcoming events delivered directly to your inbox.

As the two-time Google Cloud Services Partner of the Year, Maven Wave works with leading companies to make the shift to digital with solutions that are agile, rooted in analytics, and built in the cloud. To learn more about how we can help with your digital transformation, contact us to set up a time to speak with our experts.