Last month today: January at Google Cloud

We welcomed January with a splash at Google Cloud, with product and service announcements around security, storage, and application development. Plus, we added more options to get your legacy systems to cloud, offered some Kubernetes tips, and opened up registration for Next ‘20 in April. Read on for details on the top stories.

Making cloud stronger, easier—and colder

• Google Cloud Secret Manager, now in beta, offers a way to easily and securely store API keys, passwords, certificates, and other sensitive information on Google Cloud. It supports global names and replication policies, first-class versioning, principles of least privilege, audit logging, and more. 

• Cloud Storage got its coldest storage class yet with the addition of the Archive class, announced last month. This brings even more flexibility and cost savings for your storage options, particularly for large, rarely accessed data sets that need long-term storage. Archive storage can be accessed quickly when you need it, without performance bottlenecks.  

Welcoming platforms and partners

• Google announced the acquisition of AppSheet last month. This leading no-code application development platform can power a range of apps, from CRM and field inspections to personalized reporting. AppSheet complements Google Cloud’s strategy to reimagine the app dev space with its platform, which helps enterprises innovate with no-code development, workflow automation, app integration and API management.

• The road to cloud is paved with legacy systems and complex workloads, and plenty of options to modernize enterprise workloads. To smooth the way, Google Cloud now supports IBM Power Systems as part of our cloud solutions. You can now run IBM Power Systems as a service on Google Cloud, whether you’re using AIX, IBM i, or Linux on IBM Power. This can be especially useful if you’re applying a hybrid cloud strategy.

Learn something new, online or in person

• This new guide walks you through our most popular tips and best practices on deploying and using Kubernetes and Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). You’ll find guidance on using Kubernetes Namespaces to stay organized and improve performance, an explanation of using readiness and liveness probes, help deciding whether to run a database on Kubernetes, and more. 

• When you’re at work, it’s nice to be as productive as you can—but it’s not always easy at the speed of modern business. Last month’s tips on managing information overload at work offered ideas about how you can use your time more efficiently to avoid interruptions, prioritize work, and communicate clearly. Plus, you’ll find details on some of the G Suite features designed to help you work faster and smarter. 

• And finally, we announced Google Cloud Next ‘20, our annual event that brings together the cloud community for three days of learning, networking, and more. Registration is open now for the show, where you’ll hear from expert speakers and customers and choose from more than 500 sessions. Next ‘20 takes place April 6-8 in San Francisco.

That’s a wrap for January. Let us know what you’re working on!