Cloud Covered: What was new in Google Cloud in February

Last month, Google Cloud introduced new tools and resources to help vaccinate communities, avoid email scams, connect the world (under the sea!) and build with new technologies. Check out the most popular Cloud blog posts from February.  

Technology helps get more vaccines into more communities.

To help the global challenge of immunizing millions of people during the COVID-19 pandemic, we announced Google Cloud’s Intelligent Vaccine Impact solution. Powered by several Google Cloud technologies, this effort will help state and local governments create successful public health strategies. The Intelligent Vaccine Impact solution will also increase vaccine availability and equitable access to those who need it, and assist governments in building awareness, confidence and acceptance of vaccines. This builds on our foundation of projects supporting state and local health agencies and governments during the pandemic. 

Here’s how to understand and avoid email scams. 

Every day, we stop more than 100 million harmful emails from reaching Gmail users. Last month we shared news about a recent study we conducted with Stanford University about email scams, including common patterns and risk factors for abuse. We found that where you live, what devices you use and whether your information appeared in previous third-party data breaches can increase your odds of being a target. We also shared tips to prevent being a target, including completing a Security Checkup for personalized security advice. You can also enroll in Google's Advanced Protection program, which provides Google's strongest security to users at increased risk of targeted online attacks. Or use the Enhanced Safe Browsing Protection in Google Chrome to increase your defenses against dangerous websites and downloads on the web. 

5G will speed up our network future. 

Last month we announced a collaboration with Intel to develop ideas, products and services for communications service providers to help them benefit from new 5G connectivity. 5G is the next generation of mobile network that provides higher data speeds, real-time responses and better  connectivity. Our efforts with Intel will help businesses build systems and processes that use 5G and edge computing, which brings applications and data storage closer to the location where it is needed, to save bandwidth and improve computer response times. 

A global network lives under the sea.

We were excited to announce our new Dunant submarine cable system, which crosses the Atlantic Ocean between the U.S. and France, is now ready for service. The Dunant system — named after the founder of the Red Cross and first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize — expands Google’s global network to add dedicated capacity while connecting to other network systems in the region. Made possible in partnership with SubCom, a global partner for undersea data transport, the Dunant system delivers data across the ocean at a record-breaking capacity of 250 terabits per second (Tbps) — enough to transmit the entire digitized Library of Congress three times every second. 

APIs help software communicate.

Last month we also announced the launch of Apigee X, a major release of our application programming interface (API) management platform. APIs let multiple pieces of software work together, no matter their systems and programs, making it easier to collaborate with other teams or publicly over the web. Apigee X seamlessly weaves together Google Cloud’s expertise in APIs, artificial intelligence (AI), security and networking to help businesses deliver secure and high-performance APIs at global scale.  

That’s a wrap for February! Stay tuned to the Google Cloud blog for all things cloud.