The Year in Cloud: Google Builds Bigger, Accelerates its Network

A Google Jupiter network switch. Google is seeking to wield its expertise in network optimization in the cloud platform wars. (Image: Google)

June 20: Google — New Algorithm Will Make Our Cloud Platform Faster: Google Cloud Platform is implementing a cutting-edge algorithm to reduce network congestion, which it says will offer improved application performance for customers. The company is wielding its expertise in network optimization in the cloud platform wars. The company is enhancing its Google Cloud Platform services with a cutting-edge algorithm to reduce network congestion, which should offer ramp up application and website performance for customers. Read more.

Aug. 23: Google Adds Network Tiers to Optimize Cloud Network Costs: Google introduced network tiers, providing cloud customers with the option to save money by assigning workloads to different network tiers based on their performance requirements. Google introduced network tiers, providing Google Cloud Platform (GCP) customers with the option to save money by having some traffic delivered over the Internet, rather than Google’s private network. Read more.

A long row of racks housing servers inside the Google data center in Mayes County, Oklahoma. (Photo: Google)

Nov. 29: Google Buys Two Data Center Sites in Northern Virginia: Google has purchased two prime land parcels in Northern Virginia, signaling its readiness to step up its cloud capacity in the world’s largest data center markets, where rival Amazon Web Services is rapidly expanding its footprint. Google has purchased two prime land parcels in Loudoun County, Virginia and plans to build data centers at the sites, the company confirmed today. The move signals that Google is ready to step up its cloud capacity in the world’s largest data center markets. Read more.

Google & Microsoft Make Headlines in Tandem

Several of our stories this year examined how hyperscale cloud companies are solving common problems, including the need to create sustainable data center operations through the use of renewable energy, and the best ways to plan for future capacity. These stories look at how Google and Microsoft are working on this problems.

March 14: Greener Terawatts – Google, Microsoft Seek A Renewable Cloud : Google used 5.7 Terawatt hours of energy in 2015, which is why the company has also taken a leadership position in procuring renewable energy for its data centers and cloud campuses. According to Joe Kava, who heads the company’s global infrastructure, “Data centers make up the vast majority of that.”  Read more.

Microsoft’s Christian Belady (center) shares on data center growth at the Infrastructure Masons Summit in Palo Alto, Calif. , with moderator Dean Nelson of Uber (left) and panelists Joe Kava of Google. (Photo: Infrastructure Masons)

May 17: Keeping Pace With the Cloud: Lessons From Google and Microsoft: Keeping pace with cloud growth requires creativity and expanding your growth horizon, cloud builders from Google and Microsoft told the recent Infrastructure Masons Summit. Joe Kava and Christian Belady have been on the front lines of this effort, building the data centers that drive the growth of massive cloud empires at Google and Microsoft. Read more.

For more, see our Google data center news channel.

Keep pace with the fact-moving world of data centers and cloud computing by following us on Twitter and Facebook, connecting with Data Center Frontier editor Rich Miller on LinkedIn, and signing up for our weekly newsletter using the form below.