Cloud News
Google Cloud Next ’21: The 10 Biggest Announcements
Wade Tyler Millward
A new Google Cloud solution portfolio, a packaged industry solution called Cloud Intelligent Products Essentials and new integrations and capabilities across the Workspace suite are among the biggest announcements during the Google Cloud Next conference.
More Sustainability Features
Google Cloud is adding more features for environmental sustainability, according to the company. One such feature is carbon footprint reporting, which will become available for every Google Cloud Platform customer in the Cloud console. The feature was co-designed with Atos, Salesforce, L’Oreal and other customers. The carbon footprint product will also integrate with Salesforce Sustainability Cloud.
Google Cloud will also alert users of idle cloud instances and the associated carbon footprint. Deleting the instances should reduce the footprint. The Unattended Project Recommender API will include a carbon emissions saving estimate from removed idle resources and Active Assist Recommender will include a sustainability category, according to the company.
“By deleting these projects, not only can customers reduce their costs and mitigate security risks, but they can also reduce their carbon emissions,” said Jen Bennett, a technical director in Google Cloud’s office of the chief technology officer. “For example, we identified over 600,000 kilograms of CO2 equivalent in August associated with projects that Active Assist recommended for cleanup or reclamation.”
Google’s cloud offering also has a new partnership initiative with independent software vendors, bringing more than 50 petabytes of satellite imagery, demographics, mobility and telematics data to the cloud for BigQuery and Earth Engine users. ISVs already working with Google Cloud on this include Carto, Climate Engine and Geotab, according to the company.
Select enterprise customers will have access to a preview of Google Earth Engine for Google Cloud. The tool brings together elements of BigQuery, Cloud AI, Google Maps Platform and Earth Engine.
“Earth Engine enables companies to track, monitor and predict changes in the Earth’s surface due to extreme weather events or human-caused activities and can help save on operational costs, mitigate and better manage risk, as well as become more resilient to climate change threats,” Bennett said.
