Highlights:

  • Google, the tech giant, created a plan of cloud business expansion across the European, Middle Eastern, and African (EMEA) regions.
  • During 2020, the executives outlined several changes in the European branch of Google Cloud.
  • The tech giant also maintains partnerships with enterprises across Europe, including Telefonica, Carrefour, Renault, and others.
  • Google also disclosed the formation of a new subsea cable, Grace Hopper.

Google Cloud Next ’20: The OnAir EMEA virtual event was held on September 29, 2020. It is a conference for Google Cloud clients and developers to discuss the existing cloud challenges, landscape, and benefits.

During the virtual event, Chris Ciauri, President EMEA, Google Cloud, said that the current pandemic situation (COVID-19) has heavily disrupted the economy and technology field. Moreover, Google, the tech giant, has been working with partners to try and keep business online and working.

Ciauri commented: “At Google Cloud, we have seen first-hand the importance of keeping our cloud up and running, enabling teams to collaborate remotely and scaling to meet the changing demands of our customers.” Further, he added, “We’ve been working to help businesses and their employees, as well as governments and schools, collaborate and learn during these challenging times.”

During 2020, the executives outlined several changes in the European branch of Google Cloud. These changes include the application of additional cloud regions in Spain, France, Poland, and Italy.

Recently in June, Google revealed that the new Spanish region, based in Madrid, would also leverage Telefonica’s region infrastructure to enhance 5G using Google Cloud’s Mobile Edge Computing platform.

Google also disclosed the formation of a new subsea cable, Grace Hopper. It is an optical fiber switching cable mainly designed to enhance connectivity and capacity between Spain, the US, and the UK. Moreover, it is a fourth private cable project the giant has boarded on.

The tech giant also maintains partnerships with enterprises across Europe, including Telefonica, Carrefour, Renault, Lloyds Banking Group, and Lufthansa. Also, it recently added Reckitt Benckiser (RB) to the roster. RB is a consumer and health goods organization.

The lockdown worldwide has made everyone take a more comprehensive look at fitness and nutrition. Google says the partnership with RB will “drive stronger customer engagement across consumer health, hygiene, and nutrition [as the] company embarks on wide-scale digital transformation.”

Google has finally strengthened its senior leadership team in EMEA with:

  • Laurence Lafont, Vice President (VP) Industry Sales EMEA Google Cloud outside of France
  • Pip White, Managing Director UK and amp;I (UK and Ireland) at Google
  • Daniel Holz, VP of Northern Europe and the DACH (Germany, Switzerland, and Austria) regions
  • Samuel Bonamigo, VP, EMEA South Google Cloud at Google

Ciauri commented: “At Google Cloud, we are committed to being a trusted partner to businesses of all sizes and industries across EMEA, and Google Next OnAir EMEA is just one of the ways we are investing locally.”