Expanding our footprint to support global customers in 2020

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) regions are the cornerstone of our cloud infrastructure, and over the past four years, have grown in number to 22, with 67 zones across 16 countries, delivering high-performance, low latency, zero emissions, cloud-based services to users throughout the world.

Introducing our newest regions

As our customers in India grow and diversify, we continue to advance and invest in our cloud infrastructure to help industries such as commerce, healthcare and financial services, as well as public sector organizations across India achieve their goals. 

“Buyers and suppliers can already access our marketplace much faster than previously with Google Cloud, and this has a positive impact on customer engagement, time spent and the entire user journey. We are extremely excited about the potential of a second GCP region in India to help us provide an even better experience to the businesses that use IndiaMART,” said Amarinder S Dhaliwal, Chief Product Officer, IndiaMART. 

We’re also pleased to announce that we’ve signed our first strategic collaboration agreement to launch a region in the Middle East with the Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZA). The region will launch in Doha, Qatar, allowing new and existing customers, as well as partners, to run their workloads locally. We see substantial interest from many customers in the Middle East and Africa, including Bespin Global, one of Asia's leading cloud managed service providers. 

“We work with some of the largest Korean enterprises, helping to drive their digital transformation initiatives. One of the key requirements that we have is that we need to deliver the same quality of service to all of our customers around the globe,” said John Lee, CEO, Bespin Global. “Google Cloud’s continuous investments in expanding their own infrastructure to areas like the Middle East make it possible for us to meet our customers where they are. This aligns with our expansion into the MEA region through our new entity Bespin Global MEA, ensuring that we are closer to our customers and supporting them in adopting cloud technologies." 

Through our new Toronto region, we're able to expand our collaboration with customers like Hopper, the popular travel booking app across 120 countries. The region will support Hopper's growth not only domestically and across North America, but around the globe. 

“Having already collaborated closely with the Google Cloud team in Montréal, where we’re headquartered, we look forward to their Toronto expansion. Google Cloud services allow us to bring a lower-latency travel planning and booking service to our customers, and the second Canada region will allow us to extend that experience to more people around the world,” said Ken Pickering, CTO at Hopper. 

The opening of the Melbourne region strengthens our investment in Australia and commitment to supporting our expanding customer base, all in a secure and sustainable way. A great example of this is the work we’re doing with financial services institutions in Australia, like ANZ Bank, to advance their multi-cloud strategy. 

“We aim to shape a world where people and communities thrive and Google Cloud is key to the transformation that enables us to achieve this purpose. Google Cloud’s Melbourne region presents opportunities to further enhance a cloud-based technology environment that incorporates integrated governance controls and service management, as well as consistent security controls,” said Gerard Florian, Group Executive, Technology, ANZ Bank.

Beyond capacity and scale 

We’re constantly investing in our global technology infrastructure to make sure we have the capacity you need to run mission-critical services, with the latency that your users expect. In addition, we’re working hard to build regional capacity that meets your availability, data residency, and sustainability needs. Here are some of our other priorities when considering new regions:

1. Provide multiple in-country disaster recovery options: Having multiple regions in the same country gives you a secondary site for disaster recovery that lets you meet your business continuity requirements. Last year we launched Osaka, which, when paired with our Tokyo region, provides customers with an in-country disaster recovery solution. Customers in Canada, India, and Australia will be able to leverage the Toronto, Delhi, and Melbourne cloud regions in the same manner.

2. Give you control of your data: We understand our cloud services need to support the regulatory, security, and compliance requirements of global enterprises. Last year, we shared how to control where you put your data and who can access it, and we continue to invest in data privacy, transparency, and security.

3. Build with sustainability in mind: As more and more enterprises transition to the cloud, sustainable operations are seen as strategic to their business and they select partners who hold the same values. At Google we match 100% of the energy we use with renewable energy. This commitment to sustainability enables our customers to meet their own cloud computing needs with zero net carbon emissions. 

Delivering the best experience is our priority, and as our customer base expands around the world, we’ll also look to add other regions in new markets across the Middle East, Asia, Europe and the Americas to provide all of our users with reliable performance, security and leading sustainability. You can find more about our global infrastructure here.