Google builds its Cloud Services Platform

Google outlined its vision for integrated cloud services running over on-premise equipment as well as its own, massively-scalable cloud infrastructure. At is Google Next conference in San Francisco, Google presented its Cloud Services Platform, which is architecturally aligned with the joint hybrid cloud products being developed with Cisco.

So far, the Cloud Services Platform includes the following:

• Service mesh: Google is announcing an Istio service for managing services within a Kubernetes Engine cluster. Google is releasing Istio 1.0 in open source, Managed Istio, and Apigee API Management for Istio.
• Hybrid computing: Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) On-Prem will provide multi-cluster management
• Policy enforcement: GKE Policy Management, to take control of Kubernetes workloads
• Ops tooling: Stackdriver Service Monitoring
• Serverless computing: GKE Serverless add-on and Knative, an open source serverless framework. Essentially, Google is rolling out serverless containers, which allow customers to run container-based workloads in a fully managed environment and to pay only for actual usage. 
• Developer tools: Cloud Build, a fully managed CI/CD platform

Google is also rolling out Cloud Functions, an event-driven compute service with an SLA and support for Python 3.7 and Node.js 8, networking and security controls. Cloud Functions can be tied into more than 20 GCP services such as BigQuery, Cloud Pub/Sub, machine learning APIs, G Suite, Google Assistant, etc.

Google is introducing its third-generation cloud tensorflow processing units (TPU)

Google is rapidly expanding its Cloud AutoML (machine learning) capabilities, which is now in public beta testing.

Cisco and Google Partner on New Hybrid Cloud Solution

Wednesday, October 25, 2017  Cisco, Google  

Cisco and Google Cloud have formed a partnership to deliver a hybrid cloud solutions that enables applications and services to be deployed, managed and secured across on-premises environments and Google Cloud Platform. The pilot implementations are expected to be launched early next year, with commercial rollout later in 2018.

The main idea is to deliver a consistent Kubernetes environment for both on-premises Cisco Private Cloud Infrastructure and Google’s managed Kubernetes service, Google Container Engine.

The companies said their open hybrid cloud offering will provide enterprises with a way to run, secure and monitor workloads, thus enabling them to optimize their existing investments, plan their cloud migration at their own pace and avoid vendor lock in.

Cisco and Google Cloud hybrid solution highlights:

• Orchestration and Management – Policy-based Kubernetes orchestration and lifecycle management of resources, applications and services across hybrid environments
• Networking – Extend network policy and configurations to multiple on-premises and cloud environments
• Security – Extend Security policy and monitor applications behavior
• Visibility and Control – Real-time network and application performance monitoring and automation
• Cloud-ready Infrastructure – Hyperconverged platform supporting existing application and cloud-native Kubernetes environments
• Service Management with Istio – Open-source solution provides a uniform way to connect, secure, manage and monitor microservices
• API Management – Google's Apigee enterprise-class API management enables legacy workloads running on premises to connect to the cloud through APIs
• Developer Ready – Cisco's DevNet Developer Center provides tools and resources for cloud and enterprise developers to code in hybrid environments
• Support – Joint coordinated technical support for the solution