Summer arrived here in the U.S. last month, so school's out—but people are still using technology to connect, play and learn. Here’s what was new.

Find time to play (not just work) at home.

Remote fun, not just remote work, is essential these days. Last month, we announced that our gaming solution for Google Maps Platform is now open to all mobile game developers to create immersive games. You can now quickly build mobile games with Google Maps Platform using easy-to-access developer tools to create games with real-world locations and gameplay. There are already some fun real-world games created that include hatching dinosaurs, birdwatching and more.

Discover more ways to Meet with new features.

Our premium video conferencing product Google Meet is still available for free to anyone with an email address. Last month, we announced new features as we keep improving Meet, including availability on the Nest Hub Max, layout improvements so you can see up to 16 participants and content being shared, and hardware updates. Other upcoming features include Hey Google voice control so you can start meetings without touching hardware, and replaceable backgrounds.

Learn new things at home, whether for grown-ups or kids.

New Meet features specifically for educators are slated to launch later this year. More than 140 million educators and students use G Suite for Education, and these new features are designed to improve capabilities for moderating meetings, and engagement in remote or hybrid learning environments. These new features include hand raising, attendance tracking, and many more.

Digital cloud learning continues all summer.

Our Google Cloud training and certifications team launched several new initiatives, including Google Cloud skill badges, new certification prep learning journeys, and remote certification exam availability. You can get the first month of the certification prep training at no cost, and 30 days of unlimited Qwiklabs access too. If you’re looking for more ways to learn this summer, check out our Next ‘20: OnAir lineup, starting July 14. New content arrives each week, with themed weeks on cloud topics from application modernization and data analytics to diversity and inclusion in technology.

How does your cloud grow? With new regions.

We virtually celebrated the launch of Google Cloud’s new physical Jakarta region last month. It’s the first Google Cloud region in Indonesia—one of the fastest growing economies in the world—and ninth in Asia Pacific. A region means that those storing and using data in that region can access it faster than if it was stored farther away.

In the last month, we’ve all faced challenges on a global scale. As we look for ways to heal and find hope, we remain inspired by technology’s ability to keep us connected to each other.

Summer school is in session online with Next ‘20 OnAir.

Mark your calendars for Google Cloud Next ‘20: OnAir from July 14 to September 8, where you’ll hear from customers and can access keynotes, hundreds of sessions, developer programs—all free of charge. Each week you’ll find programming on a different topic, including infrastructure, security, app modernization, and cloud AI. Register and get more details on speakers and topics now.

Groups and teams now have an easier way to get started with G Suite.

G Suite Essentials launched last month, giving groups and teams a faster, easier way to get started with G Suite. G Suite Essentials includes premium video conferencing with Google Meet, real-time collaboration and content management with Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive, and enterprise-grade security and reliability. For many businesses, this is great for teams that aren’t ready to replace their current email or calendar tools, and it’s completely free through September 30.

We learned how financial services are staying ahead of demand.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, financial services organizations have been essential to many people and businesses, as well as governments around the world. We heard from some of these companies last month about how they’re using cloud technology to safely support employees’ work remotely. We also shared one of the ways we’re assisting loan servicers and lenders--by launching our PPP Lending AI Solution to help process and manage the huge influx of loan applications received under the Small Business Associations’s (SBA’s) Paycheck Protection Program.

When time is of the essence, AI can help.

With all kinds of new challenges arising from the coronavirus pandemic, AI has emerged as a way to answer big questions. Read about some of the useful ways AI has been deployed, such as to sift through huge research databases, forecast the spread of COVID-19, and more. 

Using cloud resources wisely is more important than ever.

Over the past few months, many businesses have re-evaluated how to use their resources. This post on understanding the principles of cloud cost optimization offers an overview of how businesses can make sure they’re being efficient with the money they spend on IT systems in the cloud. There are concepts to consider, like breaking down value vs. cost when choosing or using a certain type of technology, and tips on creating processes and working across teams.

April brought many adaptations to the new reality of working from home and socially distancing. At Google Cloud, we kept our focus on helping our customers navigate the many impacts of COVID-19 by meeting and connecting securely and virtually.

Try Google Meet and its new features, now free.
Last month, we announced that Google Meet, our premium video conferencing product, is now free for everyone. Meet’s availability will be gradually expanding over the next few weeks, and can be used by anyone with an email address. Plus, Meet has some new features like an expanded tiled layout, background noise cancellation, and options to present with higher audio quality. G Suite customers can use Meet’s advanced features, like meetings of up to 250 participants, until Sept. 30.

Even better, Meet has a secure foundation.
In an almost-entirely-virtual world, it’s important to make sure that online meetings and other interactions are secure. Our approach to security is simple: make products safe by default. We designed Meet to operate on a secure foundation, providing the protections needed to keep our users safe, their data secure, and their information private. Meet video meetings are encrypted in transit and our array of safety measures are continuously updated to prevent abuse. Learn more. 

Working securely includes meetings, devices, emails, and more.
To help enterprises adjust to new numbers of remote workers securely, businesses can now use BeyondCorp Remote Access. This is something that’s been used within Google for almost ten years, and enterprises can now address the issue of remote access to internal web apps. It’s based in the cloud, so it’s easy to get started, and lets a company’s employees and contractors use the company’s web applications on their devices, without needing to set up a virtual private network (VPN). In addition, you can take a look here at how our machine learning models used by Gmail to detect threats continue to evolve to keep up with new COVID-19-related threats.

The new Las Vegas region helps power the cloud.
Google Cloud’s newest region in Las Vegas opened up last month, providing cloud computing capacity so that companies can better serve users in the Las Vegas region. Companies located near Las Vegas can get faster access to their data than if data was stored farther away. Other cloud regions in western U.S. include Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and Oregon.

Learn new things without leaving the house.
All this month, you can explore free cloud learning resources from Qwiklabs and Pluralsight. You’ll find cloud basics and courses in on-demand skill areas, like data analytics, machine learning, and Kubernetes. The Google Cloud Essentials lab offers an introductory tour of Google Cloud and explanations of basic cloud concepts. 

April brought many adaptations to the new reality of working from home and socially distancing. At Google Cloud, we kept our focus on helping our customers navigate the many impacts of COVID-19 by meeting and connecting securely and virtually.

Try Google Meet and its new features, now free.
Last month, we announced that Google Meet, our premium video conferencing product, is now free for everyone. Meet’s availability will be gradually expanding over the next few weeks, and can be used by anyone with an email address. Plus, Meet has some new features like an expanded tiled layout, background noise cancellation, and options to present with higher audio quality. G Suite customers can use Meet’s advanced features, like meetings of up to 250 participants, until Sept. 30.

Even better, Meet has a secure foundation.
In an almost-entirely-virtual world, it’s important to make sure that online meetings and other interactions are secure. Our approach to security is simple: make products safe by default. We designed Meet to operate on a secure foundation, providing the protections needed to keep our users safe, their data secure, and their information private. Meet video meetings are encrypted in transit and our array of safety measures are continuously updated to prevent abuse. Learn more. 

Working securely includes meetings, devices, emails, and more.
To help enterprises adjust to new numbers of remote workers securely, businesses can now use BeyondCorp Remote Access. This is something that’s been used within Google for almost ten years, and enterprises can now address the issue of remote access to internal web apps. It’s based in the cloud, so it’s easy to get started, and lets a company’s employees and contractors use the company’s web applications on their devices, without needing to set up a virtual private network (VPN). In addition, you can take a look here at how our machine learning models used by Gmail to detect threats continue to evolve to keep up with new COVID-19-related threats.

The new Las Vegas region helps power the cloud.
Google Cloud’s newest region in Las Vegas opened up last month, providing cloud computing capacity so that companies can better serve users in the Las Vegas region. Companies located near Las Vegas can get faster access to their data than if data was stored farther away. Other cloud regions in western U.S. include Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and Oregon.

Learn new things without leaving the house.
All this month, you can explore free cloud learning resources from Qwiklabs and Pluralsight. You’ll find cloud basics and courses in on-demand skill areas, like data analytics, machine learning, and Kubernetes. The Google Cloud Essentials lab offers an introductory tour of Google Cloud and explanations of basic cloud concepts. 

In Google Cloud last month, we felt the love with new cloud classes, an addition to our cloud family, and a brand-new cloud region. Read on for those and other top stories from February.

Meet us in the cloud.

We are transforming our annual gathering of cloud professionals to Google Cloud Next ’20: Digital Connect, a free, global, digital-first, multi-day event connecting our attendees to Next ’20 content and each other through streamed keynotes, breakout sessions, interactive learning and digital “ask an expert” sessions with Google teams. Stay tuned to the Next ‘20 site for more details on sessions and registration info.

A new cloud data center opens in Utah.

We announced the opening of a Google Cloud Platform region in Salt Lake City last month, making it our third western U.S. region, sixth nationally, and 22nd globally. Though cloud may seem like an ephemeral concept, it’s actually made up of many physical computers, stacked together and run very efficiently in these large data centers, called regions. For a company based in Utah, this new region can speed up access to their data and services run with Google Cloud.

Cloud school is in session.

We added more content to our online set of courses for people looking for deeper training and skills in an evolving discipline of cloud computing. The Data Engineering on Google Cloud learning path is newly updated, and includes introductions to relevant Google Cloud products, plus hands-on labs for experimenting. The courses all combine to cover the primary responsibilities of a data engineer.

Work smarter and more efficiently.

Check out these essential tips from our G Suite team on combating the information overload many of us experience at work every day. Those emails and chat messages will keep coming, but you can find some ways to use your time wisely and get more done. For example, you can try the snooze and mute features in Gmail or Hangouts Chat to avoid interruptions when you want to focus on finishing a task or meeting a deadline.

Computers of the past join the present.

The computers of olden days, called mainframes, were the huge systems that powered the first businesses using technology. Plenty of mainframe systems are still running these days, but they can hold developers back from using new technologies. Google Cloud acquired Cornerstone Technology last month to better help customers migrate the software that’s running on mainframes. Cornerstone’s experience and capabilities can make the mainframe-to-Google Cloud move easier.

During Black History month, we honor those who have come before us, the legends who inspire us, and especially the people in our midst every day. 

We sat down with a few Cloud Googlers who help bring our cloud technology to more people and businesses to tackle issues ranging from helping promote sustainable fishing globally to quantifying the impact of projects to make clean water more available around the world. We discussed their personal histories, the people and moments that inspire them, and how identity shapes their work--and heard anecdotes about working in Congress, traveling the world, and more.  

Here, they share the path they took to Cloud and some of the things they’ve learned along the way.

Michee Smith, Product Manager
Being yourself always pays off.

As a product manager within Google Cloud, Michee Smith is responsible for making sure products work as expected for people. Michee’s area of focus is customer privacy. She’s passionate about making customers comfortable with keeping their data in our cloud. For her, it’s important to make privacy products easy to use, and that customers know what to expect around data access.

Michee’s path to technology started at Rochester Institute of Technology, where she knew she’d be around people who were different from her. That helped build an understanding and empathy for different cultures and groups of people that still inform her work today. “I’ve always had a belief in myself, which I credit in part to being raised in the Black church, a supportive and encouraging environment,” she says.

Her advice for those entering tech fields? Don’t counsel yourself out of doing anything. Other people might tell you “no,” but don’t let yourself be the one to say it.

“I want people to know I’m not a unicorn—I’m not here because I’m necessarily special, but because I haven’t let rejection stop me,” Michee says. “The superpower I rely on is that I won’t let other people tell me I’m not good enough.”

Hamidou Dia, VP, Solutions Engineering
Education is a lifelong pursuit.

From his Senegalese childhood to his European education to his work running the global solutions engineering organization at Google Cloud, Hamidou Dia has always had a passion for education. At Google, he leads a team focused on helping customers around the world and across industries solve their most complex business problems using Google Cloud technology. 

Hamidou’s passion for education was instilled by his mother who knew that education would open doors for him. After being selected to attend one of only five high schools in Senegal, he then attended college in France on academic scholarship. It was there he first interacted with a PC, wrote his first program and got hooked on technology, deciding to study engineering and then earning a master’s degree in computer science. Says Hamidou, “I love technology and how it can be so helpful in everyday life, and I knew right away it was the field for me.” 

Having lived in the U.S. for over 20 years and raising his family here, Hamidou has always advised his kids to embrace their heritage and stay true to themselves. “Don’t let others tell you what you can and can’t do,” he says. “Carve your own path.” 

Albert Sanders, Senior Counsel, Government Affairs & Public Policy 
People, policy and technology make a big impact.

Albert Sanders has worked in the White House, negotiated bipartisan deals in Congress, and recently addressed the United Nations General Assembly. His personal and professional travels have taken him to five continents—and he’s visited 11 (and counting!) countries in Africa. At Google Cloud, his team works with governments across the globe to pave the way for new Google Cloud data centers that help expand access to technology and enable more people to benefit from cloud computing.

Choosing a career in public policy stemmed from an early interest in government, and his experience in an overcrowded high school, where there were often not enough seats or textbooks to go around. “I learned early on that the decisions made in city halls, capitol buildings, and government agencies have a direct impact—sometimes positive, sometimes negative—on real people,” he says. That path started with law school, and led to work on Capitol Hill and then in the Obama White House.

Connecting to his history started with Albert’s first trip to South Africa several years ago. “Traveling through Africa is intensely personal,” he says. “Many Americans may take for granted that they can trace their family origins to places outside the United States. One of the many enduring legacies of slavery is that most African Americans don’t have that direct connection to their family history. I may not know the names of my ancestors or the place of their birth, but I’m reminded regularly that they passed on to us a resilience, faith, and determination that could not be shackled.”

Along the way, Albert has gained some advice that he passes on to mentees and others: “Embrace the uncomfortable and unprecedented. And don’t be afraid to advocate for yourself,” he says. And finally: “Representation matters. One of the reasons I do my best every day is because I’m aware that I must excel for myself—and for other people of color who are still terribly underrepresented in our industry. I appreciate Google’s various initiatives to address this issue. I’m committed to doing my part to support those efforts, ensure accountability, and show what’s possible when diverse perspectives and people have a seat at the table.”

We’re grateful to these Cloud Googlers for sharing their stories, and we look forward to lots more history being made in and through technology.

At Google Cloud, we kept the chill away in January with a flurry of news and tips. Warm up to the latest in storage, security and more with our top news from the month. 

You’re cordially invited to our big cloud event.

We announced Google Cloud Next ‘20, our annual event that brings together thousands of people in the cloud community to network and learn about the latest in cloud technology. Registration is open now for the show, April 6-8 in San Francisco, where you’ll hear from expert speakers and customers and choose from more than 500 sessions.

Brr, it’s cold in that data center.

If you have old photos and documents that you never look at, but just can’t throw away, you’ll appreciate this update. Cloud Storage now has an Archive class, our “coldest” storage option for data that won’t be needed for months or years at a time. Businesses can store large amounts of data that isn’t accessed often in this class of storage. It’s quick to access, though, if and when it’s needed.

G Suite is helping Code to Inspire bring dev skills to Afghan girls.

Last month we heard from Fereshteh Forough, the founder and CEO of Code to Inspire, who started the coding school to help close the education gap for girls in Afghanistan. It’s the first coding school for girls in Afghanistan between the ages of 15 and 25 to take classes after school in gaming, web development, mobile apps and more. Forough started the school from scratch on her laptop and uses G Suite tools, including Hangouts Meet, Docs, Slides, and Sheets, to communicate and collaborate between the U.S. and Afghanistan.

Wrangling sensitive data with a dedicated tool.

Keeping track of sensitive information is no easy task. If you imagine that on the scale of an enterprise company, with hundreds or thousands of employees, you can get an idea of the complexity that security professionals encounter. Google’s new Secret Manager service lets you easily, securely store API keys, passwords, certificates, and other sensitive information in a centrally managed location. It works across Google Cloud, for any customer, and allows you to adopt security best practices like the principle of least privilege. 

Retailers are going digital, fast.

The National Retail Federation held its annual conference last month, and several key Google Cloud customers and partners were in attendance. In retail, digital transformation isn’t just a requirement; it’s a race. To help retailers win, we announced an expanded Retail Acceleration Program (RAP), a set of services to help retailers optimize their websites; Google Cloud Search for Retail; Anthos for Retail, and many other solutions.

As we get ready to ring in 2020 here at Google Cloud, we’re taking a look back on stories that captured the imagination, provoked new ideas, and helped us be more efficient at work. Check out our top-read posts from 2019. 

Build the cloud that's right for your business
Just like you choose the right mix of apps you want on your phone, businesses that are using cloud computing choose the apps and services that will work for them. There are a lot of options available on Google Cloud, and some of the popular posts of the past year were about new technology that came out, as well as some new concepts to understand.

• 5 principles for cloud-native architecture—what it is and how to master it 

• Making hybrid and multi-cloud computing a reality

• Cloud Services Platform—bringing hybrid cloud to you

Lots of businesses learned how to organize their data better. 
Different types of data, like the price of a product or how many are sold, can be used to help a business understand their customers and make future planning decisions. Many of our blog posts this year explained different ways to process and manage that data.  

• Bringing the best of open source to Google Cloud customers

• From data ingestion to insight prediction: Google Cloud smart analytics accelerates your business transformation

• Query without a credit card: introducing BigQuery sandbox

Technology keeps making work easier.
The technology we use at work has come a long way in a pretty short time—it wasn’t too long ago that a video conference would have seemed like science fiction. Collaboration and productivity tools keep getting better, and in 2019, popular posts explained new ways to be efficient, and new ways to use multiple apps together. 

• Helping businesses work faster, smarter and more collaboratively in G Suite

• Connecting BigQuery and Google Sheets to help with hefty data analysis

• G Suite Pro Tips: how to automatically add a schedule from Google Sheets into Calendar

Cloud inspiration is all around.
Cloud computing is constantly evolving to be even faster and work better for users. Lots of the highlights of 2019 were stories from customers about how they’re using Google Cloud to power their great work—and from one of our own Googlers on her record-breaking computing accomplishment.

• How Google and Mayo Clinic will transform the future of healthcare

• Macy's uses Google Cloud to streamline retail operations

• UPS uses Google Cloud to build the global smart logistics network of the future

Keep up on everything that’s new with Google Cloud on our blog.

November was a cornucopia of Google Cloud news and tips, with new ways for companies to start using the cloud and improve the way they work. We’re thankful this season for all the ways cloud can make everyday work easier, and for all the cool technology that just keeps evolving.  

Take this easy path to cloud.

In November, we announced the acquisition of CloudSimple, a company that provides a secure, dedicated environment to run VMware workloads in the cloud. VMware is the company that invented virtualization, a way to use physical computer servers much more efficiently (find a full explanation here). This acquisition will make it easier for businesses running all kinds of applications on VMware, like their finance or HR software, to easily migrate those workloads to Google Cloud.

Try a do-it-yourself cloud kit.

OK, so it’s a bit more complicated than putting together something from IKEA. But our Bare Metal Solution became available at the Next UK conference. When businesses are starting to run applications based in the cloud, there can be some stragglers that are harder to move than others. That may be because of their underlying code, or the fact that they were built before cloud existed. This Bare Metal Solution brings all the tools and network connections that a business needs to start using native Google Cloud services.

We get by with a little help from our … work tools.

At the same conference, we announced new, AI-powered features to help you get through your work day more efficiently. First, fresh updates to Google Docs help you produce error-free work. And second, we announced expanded integrations between the Google Assistant and G Suite. These new features continue G Suite’s mission to help businesses become more productive and to streamline work. Check out details in this post.

Thanks for calling. How can cloud help you?

Our Contact Center AI platform became generally available last month, so companies can personalize their customer support. This is the kind of technology that powers the good experiences you have when you call customer support and are directed through options using your voice. Two features of Contact Center AI, Virtual Agent and Agent Assist (which is now generally available), both improve the customer experience while adding efficiency for the business. Virtual Agent helps provide 24/7 access to immediate, conversational self-service, while Agent Assist helps customer service agents through their work with continuous support in real time.

A networking control center helps IT take charge.

The newly introduced Network Intelligence Center can help those IT teams in charge of a company’s network (yes, that’s a very important job!) monitor across the cloud and in the company’s data centers. Networks involve a lot of moving pieces, and they all have to work together to make sure everything runs smoothly, from delivering emails immediately for employees to providing fast, uninterrupted experiences for customers. The Network Intelligence Center anticipates some of the common challenges that IT teams deal with and helps them do testing and see performance easily.