GCP – IT pros’ top five questions, and how we are answering them at Google Cloud Next

As IT admins or architects, you have your work cut out for you. You need infrastructure that’s fast, secure, cost-effective, and ready for everything from AI to analytics to large enterprise apps. And that’s just your day job. You also face a constantly evolving IT environment where emerging technologies like generative AI force you to adapt and learn to stay ahead of the curve.

If this sounds familiar, Google Cloud Next ’24 is exactly what you need to learn about the latest cloud secrets, systems and silicon. 

“Really?” you ask in a discernibly weary, sarcastic tone.

Really. This year the event is in Las Vegas on April 9-11, with a broad agenda including keynotes, ‘how-to’ deep-dives, panels, demos and labs. You can view the entire session library here, but if you’re still on the fence, let’s power through five questions that might be on your mind right now, and how you can get answers to them at Next ‘24.

1. How can I reduce costs and evaluate the reliability of cloud providers? 

Moving and grooving on the cloud doesn’t need to be a headache. And not all providers are the same. You can save big with easy-to-use strategies, tools and flexible infrastructure. Here are a few sessions to explore:

The reality of reliability: Big differences between hyperscalers, explained – Get an objective assessment of outage/incident data from three major cloud providers, then learn how you can improve your operational reliability.
Apps take flight: Migrating to Google Cloud – Learn modern migration strategies and how Google simplifies the transition from on-prem or other clouds.
Optimize costs and efficiency with new compute operations solutions – Discover features and automations that streamline workload management; hear the latest product announcements and roadmap.

2. What are the opportunities, risks, and best practices when modernizing enterprise apps like VMware and SAP?

Cloud-native workloads are great and all, but enterprise workloads are the lifeblood of most organizations. Deciding if, when, and how to modernize them is challenging. At Next ‘24, we will share a ton of ideas and help you and assess the trade-offs for yourself: 

Transform your VMware estate in the cloud without re-factoring or re-skilling – Explore how Google Cloud VMware Engine makes modernizing existing VMware setups fast and smooth.
Storage solutions optimized for modern and enterprise workloads – Find the perfect cloud-based file storage to balance your workload’s performance, availability, and cost needs.
Transform your SAP workload with Google Cloud – Optimize SAP with Google Cloud’s reliable infrastructure, tools, and best practices).

3. How should I architect my infrastructure for AI?

Tackling AI projects requires performance, scalability and know-how. Google Cloud’s AI Hypercomputer, the culmination of a decade of pioneering AI infrastructure advancements, helps businesses with performance-optimized hardware, open software, leading ML frameworks, and flexible consumption models. In fact, we were just named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: AI Infrastructure Solutions, Q1 2024, with the highest scores of any vendor evaluated in both the Current Offering and Strategy categories. 

Here are a few sessions where you can learn about our AI infrastructure during Next ‘24: 

Workload-optimized and AI-powered infrastructure – Hear the latest product announcements from VP/GM Compute & ML, Mark Lohmeyer.
Increase AI productivity with Google Cloud’s AI Hypercomputer – A 101 on our AI supercomputing architecture.
How to get easy and affordable access to GPUs for AI/ML workloads – Get tips on making the most of GPU access for your AI/ML projects.

4. What’s the best way to build and run container-based apps?

Using managed services and choosing the right database will help you secure, scalable container-based applications. Google Cloud’s container offerings are developer favorites, packaging more than a decade’s worth of experience launching several billion containers per week. Here are a few sessions you should check out during Next ‘24: 

The ultimate hybrid example: A fireside chat about how Google Cloud powers (part of) Alphabet – See how Google itself uses GKE, Cloud Run, and more to power its own services!
A primer on data on Kubernetes – Explore the rise of Kubernetes for data management, including AI/ML and storage best practices.

5. Can you meet my sovereignty, scalability and control requirements?

Many customers face challenges in adopting public cloud services due to policies and regulations that affect connectivity, reliability, data volumes, and security. Google Distributed Cloud offers solutions for government, regulated industries, telecom, manufacturing or retail (check out McDonald’s recent experience). Here are a few sessions where you can learn more:

Google Distributed Cloud’s 2024 Roadmap – Learn the basics and get a summary of new features, plus our roadmap.
How to build on-premises compliance controls for AI in regulated industries – Explore solutions to meet your toughest data sovereignty, security, and compliance requirements.
Deliver modern AI-enabled retail experiences for one or thousands of locations – Learn how to simplify edge configuration management at the edge, enabling store analytics, fast check-out, and predictive analytics, and more.

6. I just want to see something cool. What’s the one session I should attend?

You probably want to know how we’re embedding generative AI into Google Cloud solutions. We can’t reveal much yet, but make sure you add this session to your schedule: Transform your cloud operations and design capability with Duet AI for Google Cloud

Any of those questions ring a bell?  We’ve got lots of answers, and we’re ready to share them at Next ‘24 starting on April 9th. 

Not registered yet? Don’t delay! Space is limited.