Today, Google’s Cloud Next 2017 started and we’ve already seen some interesting announcements and use cases. While the keynote didn’t have the dazzle or refinement we’ve seen previously with Microsoft, AWS and OpenStack conferences, we did see some corporate heavy weights share their stories. Whether it was eBay’s shop bot working directly through Google Home or HSBC’s challenges of moving to the cloud, there seems to be a consistent theme at the conference – customers, security and Google’s capabilities.

As an example, Google announced the availability of their new Google Cloud Container Build, which can be used for container images and is independent of your existing deployment environment. Container Builder has been in development for a year running Google’s own App Engine cloud app deployment operations. Google stated, “Whether you are a large enterprise or small start up just starting out with containers, you need fast, reliable and consistent ways to package your software into containers as part of an automated workflow.”

In addition to Container Builder, there has been a lot of discussion about the move from Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Virtual Machines to containers and more specifically Kubernetes and its uses. This is probably because to develop the next generation of apps – specifically for apps on mobile phones or tablets – they require a container-based architecture.

Google is investing heavily in Kubernetes to create a container-based ecosystem at scale –  a natural home for container-based apps.

Wildly popular in tech news, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning is another area of interest. While obvious to some, it’s a surprise that you can make some simple API calls and tap right into Google’s capabilities.

One of Google’s areas that can help customers differentiate is its access to and innovations in working with data. This includes machine learning and AI efforts, which if Google can properly leverage and market to the enterprise, could set the search giant apart as a serious cloud competitor.

If you may recall back in September 2016 and possibly earlier, we heard Microsoft talking about the democratization of AI. Essentially, they are taking some highly intelligent technologies that require multiple degrees to work on and creating an easy to use and highly accessible service available to everyone.

I am confident that this is an area that we will see significant growth and use over the years ahead.

With that said, Canadian Web Hosting is looking at different options and capabilities that we can integrate that will

  1. Continue to allow us to meet Canadian data private laws but
  2. Give our customers the ability to tap into these advanced features like containers, data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning.