The Year in Google Cloud - 2024

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that 2024 was a busy year for Google Cloud. From AI to Zero Trust, and everything in between, here’s a chronological recap of our top blogs of 2024, according to readership. You’ll probably see some favorites on this list, and discover a few that you missed the first time around. 

January

We started the new year strong, removing data transfer fees for anyone moving data off of our platform. Translation: Anyone doing cool things on Google Cloud (like using generative AI to analyze their microservices deployment) is doing it because they want to, not because they have to. And in business news, we shared how to make the most out of your data and AI in the coming year. 

1. Cloud switching just got easier: Removing data transfer fees when moving off Google Cloud

2. Figuring out microservices running on your GKE cluster with help from Duet AI

3. Transform: Five ways your data can thrive with generative AI in 2024

February

From local GPUs, to model libraries, to distributed system design, the second month of 2024 was the first of many to come where AI topics dominated the charts. Our Transform team explored gen AI’s impact on various industries.

1. No GPU? No problem. localllm lets you develop gen AI apps on local CPUs

2. Google Cloud expands access to Gemini models for Vertex AI customers

3. Coming of age in the fifth epoch of distributed computing, accelerated by machine learning

4. Your RAGs powered by Google Search technology, part 1

5. Transform: Putting AI to work: Where gen AI is impacting industries in 2024

March

If it wasn’t already obvious, this month’s top-read blogs showed that our core audience is developers pushing the boundaries of innovation. Business leaders, meanwhile, read about best practices for securely deploying AI on Google Cloud. 

1. Domain-specific AI apps: A three-step design pattern for specializing LLMs

2. Announcing Anthropic’s Claude 3 models in Google Cloud Vertex AI

3. Transform: To securely build AI on Google Cloud, follow these best practices

April

Watch out, here comes Google Cloud Next, where we made a record 218 announcements; the top three are listed here. Readers were also keen to hear about how Citadel Securities built out a research platform on Google Cloud. 

1. Introducing Google Axion Processors, our new Arm-based CPUs

2. Powering Google Cloud with Gemini

3. BigQuery is now your single, unified AI-ready data platform

4. Transform: How Citadel Securities is reimagining quantitative research on the cloud

May

We don’t always get it right, but when there’s a problem, we’re committed to providing you with accurate, timely information with which to make your own assessments. We’re also committed to making you, and customers like McLaren Racing, go really, really fast when developing new AI-based applications.  

1. Sharing details on a recent incident impacting one of our customers

2. RSA '24: Introducing Google Threat Intelligence: Actionable threat intelligence at Google scale

3. Announcing Trillium, the sixth generation of Google Cloud TPU

4. Improving connectivity and accelerating economic growth across Africa with new investments

5. Transform: AI at the track: How McLaren Racing leverages terabytes of data each race for a winning edge

June

Whether you wanted to modernize your databases, deliver higher system reliability, create really cool AI-powered apps, or learn how legendary companies tackle data management, the Google Cloud blog was your go-to source midway through the year. 

1. Accelerating cloud transformation with Google Cloud and Oracle

2. Free to be SRE, with this systems engineering syllabus

3. Announcing Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet on Vertex AI, providing more choice for enterprises

4. Google Cloud expands grounding capabilities on Vertex AI

5. Transform: We are Legend: How Goldman Sachs' open-source data platform democratizes information

July

We talk a lot about “meeting customers where they are.” Sometimes that means a disaster zone, a remote research station, or a truck cruising down the highway. Over on Transform, you read about the history of our custom Axion and TPU chips. 

1. Bringing cloud and AI capabilities to the tactical edge: Google Distributed Cloud air-gapped appliance is generally available

2. VMware Cloud Foundation on Google Cloud VMware Engine: 20% lower price and up to 40% in migration incentives

3. Transform: Why Google keeps building custom silicon: The story behind Axion

4. Transform: TPU transformation: A look back at 10 years of our AI-specialized chips

August

Just when you thought you knew how to run AI inference, your available graph database options, or the name of Google Cloud’s event-driven programming service, we went and changed things up. We like to keep you on your toes ;) And business readers got a first look at AI agents — more to come on this. 

1. Run your AI inference applications on Cloud Run with NVIDIA GPUs

2. GenOps: learning from the world of microservices and traditional DevOps

3. Real-time in no time: Introducing BigQuery continuous queries for up-to-the-minute insights

4. Introducing Spanner Graph: Graph databases reimagined

5. Cloud Functions is now Cloud Run functions — event-driven programming in one unified serverless platform

6. Transform: So much more than gen AI: Meet all the other AI making AI agents possible

September

You’ve been generating (and storing) business data for years. Now, we’re making it easier for you to make sense of, and actually use, that data. Speaking of using data, the Transform team compiled a jaw-dropping list of the real-world ways customers are using gen AI in their organizations. 

1. Chat with your business data - Conversational Analytics comes to Gemini in Looker

2. Find key insights faster with a new contribution analysis model in BigQuery ML

3. Transform: 185 real-world gen AI use cases from the world's leading organizations

October

According to this month’s most-read blog, 75% of you rely on AI for at least one daily professional responsibility, including code writing, information summarization, and code explanation, and experience “moderate” to “extreme” productivity gains. So it was no big surprise that business leaders wanted to read about how to develop an AI strategy. 

1. Highlights from the 10th DORA report

2. Gemini models are coming to GitHub Copilot

3. Revolutionizing SQL with pipe syntax, now available in BigQuery and Cloud Logging

4. BigQuery tables for Apache Iceberg: optimized storage for the open lakehouse

5. Transform: How to build an effective AI strategy

November

Not content to hold the existing record for most nodes in a Kubernetes cluster (15,000), we went ahead and more than quadrupled it, to the delight of AI unicorns. But whether you work for an AI unicorn, or just a plain old zebra, all Google Cloud users needs to start using multi-factor authentication next year, as well as learn how to avoid comman AI pitfalls. 

1. 65,000 nodes and counting: Google Kubernetes Engine is ready for trillion-parameter AI models

2. Mandatory MFA is coming to Google Cloud. Here’s what you need to know

3. Transform: Unlocking gen AI success: Five pitfalls every executive should know

December

We’re closing out the year on an AI highnote, with the availability of amazing new image and video generation models, as well as the new Trillium TPU, which Google used to train Gemini 2.0, our most capable AI model… yet. Be on the lookout for how these technologies — and many others — will reshape your industry and how you work in the coming year. 

1. Veo and Imagen 3: Announcing new video and image generation models on Vertex AI

2. Announcing the general availability of Trillium, our sixth-generation TPU

3. Introducing Google Agentspace: Bringing AI agents and AI-powered search to enterprises

4. Transform: AI's impact on industries in 2025

To all our loyal readers and customers, thanks for an amazing 2024, and here’s to an even more exciting and productive 2025!