San José is one of the most diverse U.S. cities, with residents speaking more than 100 languages. Several years ago, we set out to improve city community interactions through more equitable service management and delivery. This demanded a new approach to automating the intake of requests from a majority population whose first language is not English.

We first created the 311 portal and app, which was an important step as we effectively separated resident service requests from emergencies. The way we describe it to our citizens, you call 311 for a burning question, and 911 for a burning building. In the last fiscal year, San José 311 received nearly 210,000 contacts by phone and an additional 211,000 service requests through the SJ 311 app. 

Through the portal and app, we gave citizens an omnichannel experience enabling them to interact with the city to request improvements, access useful information, and get emergency help when they need it. 

In order to truly serve our diverse communities, we recognized language translation services would be required to offer truly equitable services to everyone. That’s when we started working closely with SpringML, Google Cloud, and other partners with involvement from our Mayor and City CIO.

Building public services with community engagement in mind

When we first rolled out the My San José website and mobile app, we used an out-of-the-box translation service that ended up not working. It had poor accuracy and did not meet our needs to provide all citizens with coherent services. After looking at many other options, we decided to partner with SpringML and Google Cloud to leverage the AutoML Translation with other technologies such as our virtual agent.

SpringML was selected through an open RFP process, and helped us to build and optimize our integrations, interfaces, and more between several systems, making the app and website more intuitive to manage. SpringML delivered the product we needed on time and up to specifications, and additional value came from the training sessions they provided to our team. This enabled us to understand everything we could do with AutoML and opened the door to other enhancements such as simplifying the vernacular used with our residents, making government access easier to navigate regardless of natural language spoken. 

After establishing the My San José app’s translation capabilities using AutoML, SpringML also helped us incorporate Dialogflow virtual agents. Dialogflow also positions us to make modifications with our own staffing practices – something that has become increasingly important amid the frequent changes in service levels from COVID-19 response in the past year.

Responding to community needs

With the app up-and-running, our next step was to bring in community members to help with testing, improvements, and more. We wanted the app and the website to not just be something we provided to the community, but rather something they helped us build so they would readily adopt it.

Thanks to the greater accuracy of translation supported by Google Cloud services, we were able to leverage the expertise of a small pool of community members to evaluate translations. AutoML Translation and Glossary proved to be a powerful combination that pushed us closer to our goals. 

Our primary targets were Spanish and Vietnamese translations. We are now seeing 90 percent accuracy in automated Spanish translations while Vietnamese translations continue to improve. We continue to work to simplify the language used in these services, which makes a big difference in terms of ensuring optimal language accessibility.

This work includes best serving our community members who primarily use phones to get in touch with us through 311 services. Using Google Cloud Contact Center AI, we have been able to effectively manage the calls we receive 24×7 and communicate with residents who speak Spanish as well as English. No matter which channel one of our residents choose to use to reach out, we can serve them efficiently. 

A well-timed release

We’re proud of the work we’ve done. We’ve made many government services available to our community 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — accessible through many channels. Regardless of a person’s native language, the consistency of experiences enjoyed by everyone is improving every day thanks to AI. We’re also actively incorporating more language translation capabilities to better serve more people.

While we began this process several years ago, the recent integration of machine learning language translation with our customer relationship management system in late 2020 was very well-timed because we were able to incorporate this into our COVID-19 pandemic response. 

We’re also beginning to work with other municipalities across the U.S. to share some of the lessons we’ve learned and success we’ve seen in hopes of furthering more equitable citizen services far beyond our City limits. 

We are excited to continue working with SpringML, Google Cloud, and other partners to improve our city and the equity and quality of services that our residents enjoy.

Learn more about how you can work with a Google Cloud Partner here.

It’s no question that the cloud computing industry is booming and cloud experts are in high demand.  In 2020, 67 percent of organizations surveyed in the IDG Cloud Computing Report added new cloud roles and functions (source). 

So there are plenty of cloud jobs out there, but if you don’t have years of experience, you might find it difficult to get one. This is especially true for members of underrepresented communities, who face other kinds of systemic barriers in education and employment.

To help meet this demand and democratize opportunity, Google Cloud is introducing its first virtual Certification Journey Learning program for underrepresented communities across the United States—Cloud Career Jump Start. The program is free of charge for participants, and includes technical and professional skill development and resources with an aim to provide a readiness path to certification via the Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer Exam. 

Google Cloud’s Certification Journey Learning Program

The program offers free access to the Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer training, which provides support preparations for the Certification Exam. This industry-recognized certification helps job applicants validate their cloud expertise, elevate their career, and transform businesses with Google Cloud technology. Learn more about the exam by watching the Certification Prep: Associate Cloud Engineer webinar. 

Designed specifically for Computer Science or Information Systems-related majors (or relevant experience), the 12-week program offers:

• Exclusive free access to Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer-related training to support preparations for the Certification Exam. 
• Guided progress through the certification prep training on Qwiklabs. 
• Office hours hosted by Google Cloud technical experts. 
• Technical workshops, including sessions with Googlers who earned cloud industry certifications and have built impactful careers in cloud tech, such as Google Cloud’s Kelsey Hightower (a Principal Developer Advocate) and Jewel Langevine (a Solution Engineer). 

Earn your Associate Cloud Engineer Certification 

Curious if you qualify to apply for the program? We’ve put together a guide below to help: 

• What does an associate cloud engineer do? Associate Cloud Engineers deploy applications, monitor operations, and manage enterprise solutions. They also use the Google Cloud Console and the command-line interface to perform common platform-based tasks, to maintain one or more deployed solutions that leverage Google-managed or self-managed services on Google Cloud.
• Who’s eligible? We are encouraging applicants from groups that have been historically underrepresented in tech including Black, Latinx, Native American & Indigenous communities. Applicants should have six or more months of hands-on experience in a Computer Information Systems-related major, and/or relevant experience through online courses, boot camps, hackathons or internships. Although the ability to program is not required, familiarity with the following IT concepts is highly recommended: virtual machines, operating systems, storage and file systems, networking, databases, programming, and working with Linux at the command line.

How do you know if you are ready for the program? 

To get an idea of what the program will cover:

• Watch the Certification Prep: Associate Cloud Engineer webinar
• Complete the Skill IQ Assessment via Pluralsight
• Review the Associate Cloud Engineer Certification Exam Guide 
• Take the Associate Cloud Engineer Practice Exam

Jump start a career in cloud infrastructure and technology 

Following the hands-on training, Google Cloud will offer an additional 9 months of career development resources and activities. This includes an online support community, mentoring with Googlers & partners including SADA, EPAM Systems Inc., and Slalom, resume and interviewing support from Google Recruiting & Staffing, and additional career workshops. We are also partnering with a number of Black-owned and -operated, nonprofit and cloud training organizations like Kura Labs. 

Cloud certifications open doors 

Want to hear more about this program from two Googlers who completed it? We asked Kelsey and Jewel to share more on how certifications helped them launch their careers in the cloud industry: 

• “IT certifications introduced me to the game; opportunities and hard work helped me change it.” – Kelsey Hightower, Staff Developer Advocate, Google Cloud Platform 
• “Becoming certified as a cloud computing professional combined with prayer, networking, and practice has kept me moving on my purposeful and rewarding career path as an engineer.” – Jewel Langevine, Solution Engineer, Google Cloud Solutions Studio

Kelsey and Jewel’s wisdom doesn’t end there. They play a central role in the program, sharing more about how they navigated certifications and leveraged them for success. 

Apply today to Cloud Career Jump Start

The program is now live in the United States, with plans to expand to other regions in the coming months. It is completely virtual, and all training is on-demand so that participants can access their coursework anytime, anywhere via the web or mobile device. To determine whether you (or someone you know) would be a great fit for the Cloud Career Jump Start, check out our guidelines and apply.

As an enterprise admin, when you choose to use Google Cloud Private Catalog to enable curated, self-serve Google Cloud infrastructure provisioning, you need the ability to manage your organization’s deployments. Today, we’re pleased to announce support for several improvements to Terraform driven deployments through Private Catalog. 

With this new release, you can update Terraform configurations and keep your end users informed about updates. At the same time, Private Catalog users have the ability to view new updates, note version highlights and then update the deployment. This gives you greater control over managing deployments for solutions provisioned through Private Catalog and ensuring compliance with organizational policies and standards.

Let’s take a closer look at the features you’ll find in this release. 

Deployment change management

Terraform solutions use Cloud Storage’s Object Versioning to manage updates to configuration files. With this release, you may update configuration files using multiple approaches.

• Update the solution’s Cloud Storage object with a new configuration version
• Use a different Cloud Storage object that contains a new configuration file

Once you view and apply the changes to the solution in a Private Catalog, end users are immediately able to consume the new version of the deployment configuration.

Additionally, prior to applying any changes, you can evaluate the contents of an update by comparing versions to download and compare the current and latest versions of the configuration and use new version highlights to add a description about the updates.

Ease of consumption

Once Private Catalog detects a change to the deployment configuration, it automatically informs catalog users about the change. On the Solutions page, end users have the ability to:

• Get informed about solutions that have updates
• View version highlights published by the admin
• Apply the new version 

Additionally, with this release, Catalog users can retry existing deployments by modifying deployment parameters.

Reporting improvements

The deployment reporting dashboards for Private Catalog-based deployments now show additional information about the version of a solution deployed. This enables deeper insights into the overall deployment status across all Private Catalog solution assets.

Get started today

These new features are available to all Private Catalog customers. To learn how to use these features, refer to our documentation:

• Create a Terraform configuration in Private Catalog
• Manage and update your Terraform configurations in Private Catalog

As the saying goes, “it’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future.” Some organizations find it challenging to predict what cloud resources they’ll need in months or years ahead. Every organization is on its own unique cloud journey. To help, we’re developing new ways for customers to consume and pay for Google Cloud services. We’re doing this by removing barriers to entry, aligning cost to consumption and providing contractual and product flexibility. Read on to learn how we’re rolling out several new go-to-market programs across these key areas to help our customers purchase and consume Google Cloud services more easily.

Removing barriers to entry with Google Cloud Flex Agreements

Many customers choose multi-year commitments because they provide better line-of-sight into IT spend and budgeting. However, these commitments can create difficulty for those who don’t have clear visibility into their future cloud consumption needs. That’s why today we’re launching Flex Agreements, which enable customers to migrate their workloads to the cloud with no up-front commitments. As part of this new licensing option, Google Cloud customers still get access to unique incentives, such as monthly spend discounts¹, committed use discounts, cloud credits, and access to professional services, based on monthly spend and workloads migrated to Google Cloud.

Flex Agreements are just one example of how we are removing barriers to help customers start using Google Cloud. In 2022, we launched the Innovators Plus annual subscription, which gives developers a curated toolkit to accelerate their expertise, including access to live and on-demand training through Google Cloud Skills Boost, Google Cloud credits, and more. 

We also recently expanded trials for Google Cloud products. For example, the new Spanner free trial instance is good for 90 days, allowing developers to create Google Standard SQL or PostgreSQL databases, explore Spanner capabilities, and prototype applications—with no commitment or contract needed. 

Contractual and feature flexibility  

Contractual flexibility has always been one of our core principles. Committed Use Discounts (CUDs), for example, provide discounted prices in exchange for a commitment to use a minimum level of resources for a specified term. Last year, we introduced Flexible CUD, spend-based commitments that offer predictable and simple flat-rate discounts that apply across multiple virtual machine families and regions.

In addition to contractual flexibility, our customers also need the flexibility to choose features and functionality based on their stages of cloud adoption and the complexity of their business requirements. Therefore, over the next few quarters, we will launch new product pricing editions—Standard, Enterprise, and Enterprise Plus—in parts of our cloud portfolio. This new commercial packaging model will help give customers more choice and flexibility to optimize their cloud spend.

For customers running workloads such as those in regulated industries like banking and public sector, the higher-end Enterprise Plus tier will offer compute, storage, networking and analytics services with high availability, multi-region support, regional failover and disaster recovery, advanced security, and a broad range of regulatory compliance support. The Enterprise pricing tier will include a broad range of features designed for customers with workloads that demand a high level of scalability, flexibility, and reliability. The Standard pricing tier will offer cost-efficient and easy-to-use managed services that include all essential capabilities such as autoscaling to meet the core workload requirements of customers.

Align costs to consumption with autoscaling

At Google Cloud, a core requirement for the products we build is providing customers industry-leading capabilities to automatically scale (autoscale) services up and down to match capacity with real-time demand. Autoscaling improves uptime, reduces infrastructure costs, and removes the operational burden of managing resources.  

Many Google Cloud products include autoscaling capabilities to help customers manage unplanned variations in demand. For example, Dataflow vertical and horizontal autoscaling, in combination with granular adaptive resource configuration (aka “right-fitting”), has resulted in up to 50% saving in infrastructure costs for streaming by automatically choosing the right number of instances required to run the jobs and dynamically re-allocating more or fewer instances during the runtime of jobs. Bigtable also provides native autoscaling capabilities, and Spanner’s autoscale is an open source tool that works across regional and multi-regional Spanner deployments. 

Similarly, we added multiple features such as Cluster Autoscaler, Horizontal Pod Autoscaling, Vertical Pod Autoscaling, and Node Auto-Provisioning to GKE for elasticity and cost efficiency. 

For L.L.Bean, the ability to quickly scale capacity to meet changing usage patterns (e.g., during the holidays), as well as to rapidly perform load tests to test capacity, are “night and day” with Google Cloud compared to L.L.Bean’s legacy on-premises IT system.

“We won’t have to pay for peak capacity to have it available during peak shopping times. We just scale capacity up or down as needed.” — Randy Dyer, Enterprise Architect, L.L.Bean

We are now taking these capabilities to the next level by enabling autoscaling in BigQuery at a more granular level so you never pay more than what you use. This allows you to provision additional capacity in smaller increments, so you never overprovision and overpay for underutilized capacity. BigQuery customers can now try the new BigQuery autoscaler (currently in public preview) in their Google Cloud console.

A commitment to flexibility and choice

At Google Cloud, we remain deeply committed to the success of our customers and partners, and we are uniquely positioned to help organizations transform their business. By providing you with more flexibility and choice in how to purchase our products, we are empowering you to be more efficient and resilient.

Join Google Data Cloud & AI Summit to hear the latest announcements around innovations in Google Data Cloud for databases, data analytics, business intelligence, and AI. Gain expert insights, new solutions, and strategies that can help you transform customer experiences with modern apps, boost revenue, and reduce costs.

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