Google Cloud has set out the target to firmly establish itself as a major player among the top three cloud providers by 2025. There is only one way to achieve that, and it is — infrastructure expansion with advanced and need of the hour services. Amazon Web Services has the advantage of being the first player in the market and since then it has become a giant in the sector. Google Cloud Platform (GCP) also wants to achieve a goliath status and become a fair alternative to AWS and Microsoft Azure.
In its bud to achieve the goliath status, Google Cloud has been constantly expanding its product portfolio and rolling out updates for existing products. The rapid pace at which Google Cloud expands can be a bit overwhelming to keep pace with. CMI has proactively provided information and updates related to the cloud computing industry. In this article, we will discuss a few developments on the GCP front as it has been capitalizing on rising demand for cloud services amid COVID-19.
GCP just lowered prices on Cloud CDN
Google recently mentioned in one of its blogs that “Cache is King.” This seems more appropriate when you realize that companies around the globe rely on Cloud CDN for faster web and video content delivery. Now, GCP has made it easier to use Google Cloud’s global network and cache infrastructure by reducing cost for Cloud CDN.
As per the official statement, “We’re reducing the price of cache fill (content fetched from your origin) charges across the board, by up to 80%. You still get the benefit of our global private backbone for cache fill though—ensuring continued high performance, at a reduced cost. We’ve also removed cache-to-cache fill charges and cache invalidation charges for all customers going forward.”
GCP Adds News Partners To BeyondCorp Alliance
Back in 2019, Google Cloud announced BeyondCorp Alliance with a handful of partners. With this alliance, Google seeks to create a security framework wherein access controls reside with users and devices and not on the periphery. BeyondCorp aims to encourage remote working by making the experience more secure and free of a VPN.
As is evident by the name, the zero-trust model operates with the assumption that every user is untrustworthy and grants access to users based on the user’s profile, job level, and device’s security status. Another key objective of this alliance is to democratize zero trusts. While the alliance already has big names such as Lookout, Palo Alto Networks, and Symantec among others, it has expanded with the addition of Citrix, CrowdStrike, Jamf, and Tanium as new partners.
GCP’s recent efforts for healthcare industry
1. New Google Cloud Healthcare Consent Management API
The pandemic has brought a seismic shift in the entire healthcare industry. It has set new trends and forced the industry to come up with dedicated solutions to tackle the current scenario and be prepared for the future. Wishing to contribute to the same, GCP recently announced its Healthcare Consent Management API. It simplifies the way developers and clinical researchers manage individual’s consent of their health data. Given the strict compliances that the healthcare industry needs to meet, this API will definitely prove to be helpful.
2. sOpen Access to Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD) on Google Cloud
This announcement comes as a result of the collaboration between Google Cloud Healthcare & Life Sciences and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. The partnership aims to work towards providing free access to one of the world’s most comprehensive public genomic datasets – the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD).
Google Cloud has now made available the gnomAD data hosted in various formats. It is also providing 1TB of free BigQuery processing every month that can be used to run queries on public datasets. The access to run BigQuery operations is only made possible by offering the gnomAD dataset as part of the Public Datasets Program.