We’re continuing to expand our global footprint — and we’re doing it rapidly. In 2020, we announced our plans to launch a new cloud region to help accelerate the economic recovery and growth of Spain. Today, we’re excited to announce that our new Google Cloud region in Madrid is officially open.

Designed to help meet the growing technology needs of Spanish businesses, the new Madrid region (europe-southwest1) provides low-latency, highly available cloud services with high international security and data protection standards — all on the cleanest cloud in the industry. The new Madrid region joins our network of 33 regions throughout the globe, helping local Spanish businesses connect with users everywhere. You can join us at our region celebration on May 25 here.

A cloud built for Spain

Google Cloud’s global network of regions is the cornerstone of our cloud infrastructure, enabling us to deliver high-performance, low-latency, sustainable cloud-based services and products to support our customers across the globe.

Built in partnership with Telefónica, the new Madrid region offers Google Cloud’s unique global infrastructure locally, creating new opportunities for digital transformation across various industries and making it easier for organizations at any stage of their cloud journey to securely deliver faster, more reliable customer experiences.

Accelerating digital transformation also requires cloud services that meet regulatory compliance and digital governance requirements. In particular, highly regulated sectors like government, healthcare, and financial services need additional controls to store data and run workloads locally.

“We welcome the Cloud capabilities that the Google Cloud region is bringing to Spain. It is especially important for the alignment with the security levels that public sector organizations demand and as required in the National Security Scheme. They must take advantage of a cloud that is offered locally with the highest security guarantees. The collaboration with hyperscalers is key. It is also essential to continue advancing with best practices adoption, training, security configurations and supervision” Luis Jimenez, Subdirector del Centro Criptológico Nacional.

Having a new region in Madrid helps remove these barriers to cloud adoption, allowing both Spanish businesses and government entities to meet their availability, data residency, and sustainability needs in Spain while also accelerating their digital transformation.

The Madrid region is launching with three cloud zones to prevent service interruptions, and our standard set of products, including Compute Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine, Cloud Storage, Persistent Disk, CloudSQL, and Cloud Identity. . Customers will also get access to smarter analytics capabilities, AI and ML solutions, and application modernization tools that allow them to unleash the full potential of cloud computing.

At the same time, customers will benefit from controls that enable them to maintain the highest security, data residency, and compliance standards, especially those that deal with specific data storage requirements.

“In DIA Group we have always been committed to seeking innovative solutions to improve our customers’ experience while respecting the trust they place on us every day. For this reason we have decided to rely on the new Google Cloud region in Madrid for some of our most critical workloads like our store operations (orders, inventory, product stock, etc). This will guarantee our customers a low-latency service while managing their data within the national borders, as well as optimized performance.” – Carlos Valero, Chief Information Officer, Grupo DIA

“Offering our customers low-latency services while keeping workloads and data management safe, is vital for us. The availability of the new Google Cloud region in Madrid represents a great step forward that will allow us to achieve our goals and meet the expectations of our customers by offering them a premium user experience without neglecting data security and residency.” – Carmen Lopez Herranz, CTO, BBVA

Going beyond with a transformation cloud

At Google Cloud, we’re constantly working to help customers across various industries achieve what was once considered impossible, reinvent themselves, and transform the way they serve their customers using digital technology — all on the cleanest cloud in the industry.

Our transformation cloud is helping businesses become:

Smarter: Google Cloud lets you leverage data for deeper insights with a unified platform that makes it easy to get value from structured or unstructured data, regardless of where it resides.
Open: Google Cloud’s commitment to multicloud, hybrid cloud, and open source provides the freedom to choose the right solutions, allowing developers to build and innovate faster, in any environment.
Connected: Digital transformation isn’t just about technology — it’s about people and culture. In an era where work can happen anywhere, Google Cloud provides the tools needed to be more innovative, productive, and make faster decisions, together.
Trusted: Google Cloud offers strong security capabilities and a zero-trust architecture to help protect data, applications, and infrastructure against potential threats. We also provide specific offerings and work closely with local partners to help address digital sovereignty requirements emerging from both customers and policymakers.

In addition to the launch of our new Madrid cloud region, we’re making other commitments that will pave the way for new business innovations and development in Spain. The Grace Hopper subsea cable landed in September 2021 in Bilbao, connecting Spain and the UK with the United States for increased performance and greater support using the same network that powers Google infrastructure and products.

We’re also helping people develop new skills that will enable society to champion cloud technology and growth in the future. Google has already helped to train more than 1 million people with our Grow with Google program in Spain, and we have future plans to open a center of excellence for cybersecurity in Malaga and support the creation of the AI Lab Granada, in collaboration with Indra Minsait in the coming years.

For more details about the Madrid region, head to our cloud locations page, where you’ll find updates on the availability of additional services and regions.

Retail will forever be an industry that must constantly reinvent itself in response to, and anticipation of, ever-changing consumer demands.

Digital transformation is fueling these changes and we’ve previously spoken about how businesses including Ulta Beauty and Kohl’s are taking advantage of Google Cloud to put data at the center of what they do and deliver the best possible shopping experience and product offerings for their customers.

Leveraging Google Cloud machine learning platform, Sainsbury is able to develop predictive analytics models to spot trends and adjust inventory, providing shoppers with a better experience. 

Sainsbury’s, one of Britain’s best-known supermarkets, is another great example of a business transforming the way it engages with its customers with the cloud.

With over 150 years of service, Sainsbury’s vision is to be the most trusted retailer, where people love to work and shop. It makes customers’ lives easier, by offering great quality and service at fair prices. 

The food industry and the way that customers shop is rapidly changing. From foodie hashtags on Instagram, to the latest cooking fads, customers want to stay connected to the latest trends and Sainsbury’s is empowering them do that.

To help Sainsbury’s achieve this goal, its Commercial and Technology teams, in partnership with Accenture, are building cutting-edge machine learning solutions on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to provide new insights on what customers want and the trends driving their eating habits.

With the help of Google Cloud Platform, we are generating new insights into how the world eats and lives, to help us stay ahead of market trends and provide an even better shopping experience for our customers.
–Phil Jordan, Group CIO, Sainsbury’s 

Sainsbury’s solution relies on data from multiple structured and unstructured sources. Using Google Cloud’s powerful cloud-based analytics tools to ingest, clean and classify that data, and a custom-built front-end interface for internal users to seamlessly navigate through a variety of filters and categories, Sainsbury’s is able to gain advanced insights in real time.

As a result, Sainsbury’s has been able to develop predictive analytics models to spot trends and adjust inventory, providing shoppers with a better experience. 

Phil Jordan, Group CIO of Sainsbury’s believes this project will have a big impact.

“The grocery market continues to change rapidly. We know our customers want high quality at great value and that finding innovative and distinctive products is increasingly important to them. With the help of Google Cloud Platform, we are generating new insights into how the world eats and lives, to help us stay ahead of market trends and provide an even better shopping experience for our customers.” 

This project is also a great example of the successes Google Cloud customers have when they work with the company’s partners.

“We’re delighted to partner with Google Cloud to help the Sainsbury’s Commercial team apply predictive analytics to the identification of new and emerging trends in grocery,” says Adrian Bertschinger, Managing Director for Retail, Accenture.

“The food sector is experiencing significant, rapid disruption, and this new, cloud-based insights platform will help Sainsbury’s identify trends much earlier and adapt their product assortment in a faster, more informed way—all for the benefit of customers.” 

Whatever the next food or shopping trend may be, Sainsbury’s is looking to the cloud to help them stay a step ahead.