Cloud Covered: What was new in Google Cloud in December
December marked the end of a tumultuous year, one that brought new challenges to work, school, and home. At Google Cloud, we helped our customers respond to the challenges and prepare for opportunities in the coming year with new tools, resources, strategies and partnerships.
Google acquires Actifio
Last month, we announced Google Cloud’s acquisition of Actifio, a leader in data backup and disaster recovery (DR). Their business continuity products help customers protect and manage virtual copies of data in their native formats and use these copies in areas like application development and testing. This new acquisition further demonstrates our commitment to helping enterprises prevent data loss and downtime due to external threats, human errors, network failures and other disruptions.
Free Google Cloud trainings available
Our December blog post sharing no-cost learning opportunities to help you build in-demand cloud skills was popular with readers. These training sessions can help you further your knowledge of artificial intelligence, Kubernetes, multi-cloud technologies and data analytics. We’re announcing more free learning opportunities in the new year. In January, we’re introducing our skills challenge, which will provide you with no-cost training to earn Google Cloud skill badges in four initial tracks: Getting Started, Data Analytics, Hybrid and Multi-Cloud, and Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. To begin, sign up for your preferred skills challenge to receive 30 days free access to Google Cloud labs.
Taking the cloud to the stars for new discoveries in astronomy
Last month we also shared news about our pioneering collaboration in the science of astronomy with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, and researchers at the California Institute of Technology. The Rubin Observatory will host its Interim Data Facility (IDF) on Google Cloud, processing the astronomical data it collects and making it available to the broader scientific community. Separately, Caltech’s Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) has begun to use Google Cloud’s tools, such as machine learning (ML) models to identify the objects observed in their research at a greatly accelerated rate. This past October, their new ML model identified Comet C/2020 T2, the first ever such discovery attributed to artificial intelligence.
Introducing Google Workflows for easier tasks at work
In August we introduced Workflows, a powerful new addition to Google Cloud’s application development and management toolset. Whether your company is processing transactions, producing goods or delivering services, you need to manage the flow of work across a variety of systems. And doing so is much easier with a purpose-built product. Our December blog explored Workflows in depth, including its technical details and how it can be used in common business uses like generating invoices and processing customer transactions.
That’s a wrap for December, and for 2020. Stay tuned to the Google Cloud Blog for news and updates in this new year.
