Google Cloud Next 2017 Highlights + Notable Features

Google is founded on a mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful to everyone. Google Cloud is a natural extension of that mission.

- Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google

A Quick Recap of Google Cloud Next ‘17

Google Cloud Next ’17 concluded on March 10 in San Francisco this year. In attendance were 10,000+ business, IT and data leaders interested in the new capabilities of the Google Cloud Platform. The focus of the presentations centered on Big Data Analytics, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence APIs and services by Google.

Let’s call this conference what it was: a giant sales pitch to enterprises that basically said, “use the Google Cloud Platform or be tasked with developing one yourself”.

G Suite Updates for Enterprises: More Collaboration + Productivity

Google’s enhanced team collaboration and productivity features allow connectivity for enterprises in a variety of industrial sectors. Here were the latest G Suite updates discussed at Cloud Next ‘17:

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1. Team Drives for Google Drive — a solution for simplifying file sharing across organizations
2. Quick Access in Google Drive- powered by machine intelligence, this feature surfaces the right file to the right employee before they even start looking for it
3. Hangouts Meet — a simple solution for video meetings

• Hangouts Chat, integrated enterprise solution that connects cross-functional teams via an intelligent communication app
• @meet, a new hyper intelligent bot that uses NLP and ML to automatically schedule meetings with Hangouts Meet and Google Calendar

1. Jamboard — a digitally collaborative whiteboard that allows for real-time collaboration at scale
2. Gmail Add-Ins — developers can now build native integrations for Gmail

Google is dedicated to capturing the connectivity that enterprises desire at all levels of cloud management. At Cloud Next ’17, the conversation centered on the new features in G Suite that are dedicated to serving companies.

[Tweet “Google’s strategy is to ensure that enterprises adopt GCP while using G Suite internally”]. This combination is powerful as it positions Google in the heart of these businesses — right where IT and Operations meet. It’ll be interesting to see how Google fairs with enterprises after its extensive pitch to potential customers at Cloud Next ‘17.

Have you heard about the new Google Keep and WordPress integrations in Drive? We’ll be covering those this week, so stay tuned for our review and follow us on Twitter.