Google Cloud have announced two developments this week – an alliance with hybrid cloud company NetApp and the launch of a new cloud region in Switzerland. With these two major events, Google seeks to fortify ‘Google Cloud Platform (GCP)’ for its users in a bid to provide low latency and cloud migration solutions.
Google say that Europe as a region holds great potential for the data center business. They also claim that foreseeing this potential, they have acquired lands in Denmark and Sweden to build new data centers.
As a location, Google say that Switzerland provides a strategic advantage when it comes to facilitating connectivity with regions like the UK, France, Belgium, Germany and Finland. They also claim that local enterprises in the region will benefit by leveraging on this network once the cloud region with high-speed facilities is built in Switzerland.
According to Google, this cloud region is also set to facilitate AI (Artificial Intelligence) development after they announced the new Google AI division. Speaking about this in detail, Christian Howard, Head of Communications at Google AI, commented:
The Google AI channels will continue to showcase the breadth of Google research, innovation and publications, in addition to a lot more new and exciting content to come.
In addition to this development, Google say that they have partnered with NetApp to ease cloud migration for their customers. With this alliance, Google’s cloud-native customers will be able to quickly sync datasets, manage cloud volumes in the console effectively and facilitate high storage for SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) applications.
Speaking about the alliance, Diane Greene, CEO at Google Cloud, said:
Google Cloud and NetApp are committed to simplifying the journey, meeting customers where they are, and accelerating innovation.
NetApp Cloud Volumes for Google Cloud Platform —a high-performance storage service with advanced management features—gives our customers the freedom to move to the cloud at their own pace.