Big data promises faster and better insights into your business. In an age when every new piece of data is a source of analytical growth for your organization, the question isn’t do you need big data solutions, but which big data solution you need.
Google Cloud combines powerful solutions for enterprise data warehousing, Spark and Hadoop migration, building data lakes, AI, streaming analytics and more.
The Google Cloud Platform
Merging big data with cloud computing can transform your organization in ways that were once unimaginable as recently as 5 years ago. The vast majority of corporate executives believe that if they do not embrace big data they will lose their competitive edge and may even face irrelevancy.
Because machine learning and analytics have been at the heart of Google from its inception, the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) gives the organizations who use it access to the same analytical engines Google itself employs to unearth crucial business information.
The platform offers a flexible, scalable, and typically more cost-efficient data storage and analytics solution when compared to in-house options. This is especially crucial for organizations who have little control over the speed at which their data volume is growing.
Data analytics offerings within the platform are continually being improved and, depending on your needs, built-in GCP tools like BigQuery and Cloud DataLab can be used in conjunction with other open-source and cloud-native solutions.
If you already store data on Google Cloud, the odds are that data is spread across multiple systems and data formats. Cloud Data Fusion is a recently launched cloud-native data integration service that lets you aggregate all your data sets in a single interface. So even if your data is hosted on other cloud services, you’ll now be able to view it from the Cloud Data Fusion interface and, for instance, decide which data set that you need to process in BigQuery.
Stream analytics solutions like Cloud/PubSub and Cloud Dataflow are simpler, faster alternatives to batch ETL when dealing with large amounts of constantly changing data. PubSub is Google’s version of Kafka but is hosted, so there’s no setup involved. Dataflow is a fully-managed service that’s designed to help you assess, enrich, and analyze data in real-time, stream mode, historical, or batch mode. Think of it as a next-generation ETL tool that lets you extract data in your system and transform it into useful data without limitations.
Other product categories include:
- Prepackaged or build-your-own artificial intelligence solutions.
- API management offering greater security, visibility, and control.
- Fully managed, scalable database services to support current and future apps.
- Application development tools including serverless solutions, continuous integration, and Istio solutions.
- IoT solutions that unlock business insights from your global device network.
- Security products designed to help you efficiently meet policy, regulatory, and business objectives.
Companies that rely on GCP include Home Depot, Spotify, Coca Cola, Sony Music, and HSBC. And even Apple admits to using the platform for some of its iCloud products.
The Google Cloud Advantage
Moving your infrastructure to the Google Cloud platform ensures a high level of control and provides access to one of the largest networks in the world. As cloud options have changed so, too, has the way IT managers and CIOs have incorporated the cloud into their infrastructure plans and replacing/supplementing existing data centers. IT senior managements' growing comfort with running the most sensitive data on public cloud infrastructure is a departure from traditional strategies but offers incredible advantages. GCP offers the following (not exhaustive):
- Live migration of Virtual Machines, something neither AWS or Azure currently offer, allows patching, repairing, and updating hardware and software without worrying about machine reboots.
- Services are available in various regions and zones across North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. That means you can choose where to locate your apps to meet your availability, latency, and durability requirements.
- Stackdriver Debugger offers developers the option to assess and debug code in real-time and, with just a few mouse clicks, take snapshots of running applications.
- When you want complete control over your container environment, you can run containers on Compute Engine, and open-source Kubernetes offers container management in regard to virtualization on the Cloud Platform.
Finally, where Google Cloud has really worked to set itself apart is in its simplified pricing options, making it an attractive investment for many organizations. Its automatic application of discounts for sustained use is a direct response to AWS’ more complicated spot, on-demand, and Reserved Instance pricing structure.
Where Cloud is Headed
It’s predicted that by this time next year cloud traffic will represent over 90% of all data center network traffic. As interest in GCP continues to hold steady, more companies will undoubtedly migrate to the platform to take advantage of its secure, flexible, and cost-effective solution.
Google Cloud is a digital transformation platform that allows you to manage data at scale, develop and modernize applications, and understand and analyze data, all while collaborating with partners in meaningful ways. Its sharper, more customer-focused products and services make it a great choice for empowering the applications you build while reaching a broader base of customers.