What happened at Cloud Next’18 ?
Google Cloud Next’18 is one of the most anticipated events in the tech industry. Which focuses on cloud solutions offered by Google.
As a Google Developer group organizer, I was fortunate enough to receive a fully sponsored invitation from Google to attend Cloud Next ’18 conference held in San Francisco. It was the third time I received a fully sponsored invitation to a Google conference.
Day 01
As a Sri Lankan, I was lucky enough to be able to walk into Moscone Center, filled with over 25,000 people and attend the keynote speech. Thanks to Google’s hospitality I was fortunate to be one of the few selected people who were able to attend the keynote speech. This was an overwhelming experience which I will never forget.
The keynote was kicked off by Diane Greene, the CEO for Google Cloud. She started by asking the question, “Why Google Cloud?”, a question even I was wondering about before I entered the conference hall. She went on to say, “We’ve been scaling and optimizing this cloud for 20 years,” appealing to those who would naturally be comforted by a nod to the company’s experience and expertise. From there she rather systematically addressed any potential “but” statements the audience may have had — from security to how they’re pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence.
After that Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai took the stage.
Before reiterating the importance of Kubernetes, he handed it over to Google’s first VP of Engineering, Urs Holzle who spoke about unnecessary complexities that occur in multi-cloud strategies and about how between 2005 and 2015 server costs throughout the world have reduced by 15% while admin costs have shot up 83%.
Along with the announcement of Google’s new Contact Center AI, both Dan Leiva, eBay’s Vice President Customer Service Technology, and Merijn te Booij, CMO at Genesys spoke at the event.
The day 01 Keynote was very insightful and engaging.
After the keynote, I went to the codelabs and breakout sessions throughout the day.
Day 02
Google Cloud CMO, Alison Wagonfeld delivered Day 2 Keynote. She talked about how machine learning has changed the modern day marketing landscape.
Afterwords Alison quickly turned it over to Garrick Toubassi, Vice President of Engineering for G Suite, who opened with a statement:
“Since last year, we’ve added 1 million new payment providers to G Suite”.
After the second day keynote, I participated in training sessions, most of which were related to Machine Learning.
In this showcase, Reto Meier and NEXT 18 attendees analyze their basketball shot making abilities on an NCAA basketball court in Moscone Center.
Day 03
VP Developer Relations Adam Sligman started Day 3 Keynote. This was actually the developer keynote. After an awesome keynote, the Developer Community Members and Google Developer Relations team got together at the Developer Community Lounge to discuss community improvement.
[Download now] Next ’18 e-book
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