Recent Updates on Google Cloud EKM to Meet Customers’ Cloud Data Security
3220
Of your peers have already read this article.
2:00 Minutes
The most insightful time you'll spend today!
Google Cloud External Key Manager (Cloud EKM) lets you protect your cloud data with encryption keys that are stored and managed in a third-party key management system outside Google Cloud’s infrastructure. This allows you to achieve full separation between your encryption keys and your data stored in the cloud, making you the ultimate arbiter of access to your data. We are continuously innovating and developing the functionality of Cloud EKM, so let’s explore some recent updates we’ve made.
New functionality
Available today, we have added several much-anticipated features to Cloud EKM to help meet customer requirements:
Cloud EKM over VPC
Many customers want to incorporate an additional layer of security and reliability when connecting their key manager to the cloud. To help meet this need, we are introducing Cloud EKM support for Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) networks. This support allows Cloud EKM to connect via a secured private network, giving customers stricter control over network access to their external key manager. For more information, see Using Cloud EKM with VPC.
Support for asymmetric keys
In addition to symmetric encryption keys, Cloud EKM now recognizes both RSA as well as Elliptic Curve asymmetric keys created in a supported external key manager. With support for asymmetric keys, you can sign approvals granted via Access Approval. Asymmetric keys can add a layer of assurance when granting administrative access to customer data. You can also use the external asymmetric keys to sign data just as you would a cloud native key. For more information, see Asymmetric signing keys.
Protection level organization policy
We’ve made a new organization policy available for Cloud KMS that allows for fine-grained control over what types of keys are used. By using this org policy, you can specify that only specified KMS key types, for example EXTERNAL or EXTERNAL_VPC, may be created. This function can help meet specific requirements for separation of data or data sovereignty, ensuring only externally-managed keys are used with certain workloads. For more information, see Organization policy constraints.
Cloud EKM supports the Google Cloud services which typically store customers’ most sensitive data assets, and we are constantly adding support for more services. For example, we recently added Cloud EKM support for Cloud Storage, allowing customers to leverage Google-scale storage while adhering to local regulations and holding their keys in their own key manager. For a complete list, see our currently supported services, and if you’re interested in using Cloud EKM with a GCP service that is not yet supported, you can make feature suggestions here.
Best practices for Cloud EKM
The newly published Reference architectures for reliable deployment of Cloud EKM services guide provides recommendations for running a highly available and reliable external key manager integrated with Cloud EKM. These recommendations answer some of the most common questions and concerns we’ve heard from customers. The recommendations are aimed at operators of an external key manager, meaning that if a supported partner operates your EKM, you might share some of these responsibilities with a partner, depending on the design of their product and how it integrates with Cloud EKM.
Take encryption into your own hands
Being deliberate about encryption is critical for securing your sensitive data on Google Cloud. We’re always evolving our encryption products to meet your needs and help you achieve your business goals, and we hope that the additional features mentioned in this blog will allow you to make better use of your key management infrastructure. To get started with Cloud EKM, check out our documentation to learn more or try it for yourself in the GCP console.
3521
Of your peers have already downloaded this article
6:30 Minutes
The most insightful time you'll spend today!
A well-executed digital transformation should do much more than keep you competitive… it should also position you to excel by untethering IT staff from low value, labor-intensive tasks, allowing them to focus on innovation and high-impact projects.
Also, replacing (or supplementing) legacy systems with modern technologies can reduce complexity and cost, while also positioning you to leverage cloud-native tools to achieve enhanced business intelligence and key strategic insights.
Finally, with nearly unlimited scalability at your fingertips, applications can scale up and scale down on demand, while you pay only for what you consume. This allows you to maintain a continuously right-sized cost profile, while also accelerating development and reducing procurement cycles.
Download this whitepaper to get a simple, prescriptive guidance to assist with the most important part of your digital transformation: the beginning.
3466
Of your peers have already watched this video.
1:30 Minutes
The most insightful time you'll spend today!
Pharma Firm Drives 80% Improvement in Speed with SAP on Google Cloud
FFF Enterprises is a leading supplier of critical-care biopharmaceuticals, plasma products, and vaccines. Their passion for patient safety and product efficacy drives their mission of Helping Healthcare Care.
For FFF Enterprises if they have to focus on ERP infrastructure, that takes away from getting products to patents. Learn why FFF Enterprises chose to deploy SAP on Google Cloud and drove an 80% improvement in speed for their SAP environment at a lower cost.
3493
Of your peers have already watched this video.
2:30 Minutes
The most insightful time you'll spend today!
Google Cloud Helps DSW Engage Over 28M Shoe Lovers in Real Time
DSW Shoes turned to Google Cloud and Google Cloud Partner – Slalom to develop a realtime, engaging loyalty program that serves more than 28 million active members instantly.
The major move from on premise to a cloud-based, data-driven platform that offers speed, flexibility, and scalability has helped increase DSW’s new customer rate by 9% and allows the company to achieve a best-in-class retention rate.
Watch the video to understand how DSW Shoes did this.
Indonesia moves towards advanced education with Cloud, ML & Mobile Development
3200
Of your peers have already read this article.
2:30 Minutes
The most insightful time you'll spend today!
Indonesia is leading the way for digital transformation in Southeast Asia. According to Google’s e-Conomy South East Asia report, the country’s 2030 Gross Merchandise Value – the value of online retailing to consumers – could be twice the value of the whole of Southeast Asia today.
This growth means that many companies need more qualified IT graduates and employees with digital skills than they have today. Fast-growing tech companies need more qualified IT graduates, and employees with digital skills. According to the World Bank, Indonesia needs an additional nine million people with digital skills by 2030. The shortage of technical talent reiterates the need to invest in a reliable skills pipeline.
Following years of digital talent developments in Indonesia, Google has become a supporter of Bangkit, an academy designed to produce high-caliber technical talent for Indonesian technology companies and startups. Bangkit has facilitated a multi-stakeholder collaboration between Google, government, industry, and universities across Indonesia.
Last year, the President of Indonesia and the Ministry of Education and Culture, Research, and Technology, acknowledged Bangkit’s significant impact, with 3,000 students completing nearly 15,000 courses and specialisations.
Building on last year’s success, Bangkit started its 2022 program in February, offering three learning paths to students:
- Cloud computing with Google Cloud, preparing students for the Google Associate Cloud Engineer certification. Some of the course components are also available online
- Mobile development with Android, preparing students for the Google Associate Android Developer exam. An online version is available here.
- Machine learning with Tensorflow, getting students ready to take the Tensorflow Developer certification. Some of the online courses are available here for others.
Bangkit 2022 has enrolled 3,100 university students who will take a five month study course, obtaining university study credit, as well as industry certifications. The program accepts diverse cohorts of people who are passionate about preparing for a tech career in the near future, with support and encouragement for women, people with disabilities, and students from across Indonesia to apply.
Since its pilot in 2019, Bangkit has been guided by three principles:
- Industry-led: provides curriculum and instructors from industry experts, including Google, GoTo and Traveloka. Instructors include key figures such as Laurence Moroney (Google, Lead AI Advocate), Google Developer Experts, and other committed professionals.
- Immersive: combines online learning methods conducted in both individual and group settings.
- Interdisciplinary: contains knowledge and best practices in tech, soft skills, and English to provide complete career readiness.
The program runs from February to July 2022, and has a 900-hour curriculum throughout the 18-week learning experience.
Benefits for students participating in Bangkit include:
- Study credit conversion
- Job opportunities at our career fair
- Google Cloud, TensorFlow and AAD exam vouchers
- Incubation funds and mentorship support from industry
Towards the end of Bangkit 2022, students will team up for the Capstone Project challenge to propose solutions to some of the nation’s most pressing problems, such as environmentalism, accessibility, and more. The top 15 teams will be selected to receive funding to incubate their capstone projects. These education and career-preparedness offerings are provided at no cost.
Google is partnering with industry, governments, universities, and employers to help meet the skill demands of today. From supporting the State of Ohio to offer tech skills to residents, to working with the University of Minnesota-Rochester to create a customized health sciences degree program, Google is here to help our partners prepare those they serve for a cloud-first world.
Built on Google Cloud, Enexor’s Bio-CHP Unit Powers 100 Homes with Renewable Energy!
4777
Of your peers have already read this article.
2:00 Minutes
The most insightful time you'll spend today!
Editor’s note: Earth Day reminds us that we all can contribute to creating a cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable future. Google Cloud is excited to celebrate innovative startup companies developing new technology and driving sustainable change. On this year’s Earth Day we’re highlighting Enexor BioEnergy and their initiative to produce clean, sustainable energy from plastic and agro-waste with the help of Google Cloud solutions.
Picture a world without electricity where billions of people burn dangerous fuels and trash from landfills to cook meals and heat their homes. Children constantly cough, choking on toxic smoke that lingers in houses and sickens entire families. Because there are no pumps or purification plants, contaminated water is hauled in buckets from dirty rivers and polluted wells. Without power or lights, hospitals and emergency medical clinics can only provide basic services during the day.
Although it is 2022, this harsh life is a reality for billions of people living in developing countries around the world.
Producing clean energy from plastics and organic-waste
This Earth Day, let’s imagine what life would be like in these countries if people had access to safe and inexpensive bioenergy. In this world, indoor air is fresher. Clean water runs from faucets, while homes, businesses, and schools have electricity. Doctors and nurses have the power to treat patients 24 hours a day and save lives with advanced medical equipment. Local economies boom and entrepreneurs thrive.
This is the sustainable future Enexor BioEnergy and its partners are building—one village at a time. With the Enexor Bio-CHP™ system, we produce clean and sustainable energy from discarded plastics, organic, and biomass-waste such as rice and corn husks, seaweed, coconuts, and other biomatter while offsetting significant Carbon emissions. The Bio-CHP can be commissioned and easily installed in just a single day, with multiple systems installed side-by-side when more power is needed. By being offered under its novel Energy-as-a-Service business model, Enexor ensures that the Bio-CHP can generate immediate environmental positive impact and customer adoption.
Each Bio-CHP unit generates enough energy to power over 100 homes—and provides much-needed renewable electricity and thermal power for schools, businesses, manufacturing facilities, water pumps, Wi-Fi systems, and telecommunications towers. The Bio-CHP creates clean energy by safely oxidizing plastics and biomatter in a secure container using a high-temperature system to power a micro-turbine. This produces bioenergy, significantly reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions.
By solving a community’s waste issues while providing more affordable renewable energy, the Bio-CHP also creates new economic opportunities and improved outcomes where it is installed. This includes using its inexpensive power to expand local services and offerings, and empowering local community clean up efforts by incentivizing waste collection via blockchain-enabled digital currencies and services such as PayGo. Additionally, the Bio-CHP is an ideal solution for businesses who desire to maximize their own sustainability efforts, gain greater energy resiliency, and save money on their current energy and waste costs.
Engaging in Google for Startups Accelerator: Climate Change
When developing the Bio-CHP, we realized we needed a reliable and experienced partner to help us incorporate the best in class machine learning and artificial intelligence into our technology. That’s why we joined the Google for Startups Accelerator and participated in the Google for Startups Accelerator: Climate Change.
The accelerator introduced us to other companies working to create a sustainable future and opened new opportunities for collaboration and partnerships. The accelerator also continues to give our small team access to the best of Google Cloud’s people, programs, and solutions. We especially want to highlight Google Cloud’s dedicated startup experts and the incredible technical support they provide, as well as the Google Cloud research credits we used to explore new solutions.
As an example, Enexor is developing a predictive maintenance tool that automatically adjusts Bio-CHP operations to match fuel composition. Another tool in development proactively identifies and flags potential Bio-CHP system and component failures—before they occur.
Google Cloud’s dedicated startup experts work closely with Enexor to develop predictive models for these tools and Enexor also used the Google Cloud research credits that were provided to build these advanced models on TensorFlow, Vertex AI, Cloud CDN and AutoML. Since each system is remotely monitored from Enexor’s global headquarters in Tennessee, predictive maintenance tools also increase the safety, reliability, and efficiency of Bio-CHP in off-grid locations.
Generating 13 billion kWh of clean power by 2040
In the future, Enexor plans to explore additional Google Cloud solutions such as BigQuery to crunch larger datasets, Google Data Studio to build dashboards, and perhaps even Google Cloud Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) to more efficiently process machine learning (ML) workloads.
These solutions will help Enexor to achieve three primary goals by 2040: to generate 13 billion kWh of clean power, reduce 120 million tons of CO₂, and provide one million people with access to clean and sustainable energy. With each Bio-CHP system, Enexor annually reduces up to 2,000 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent emissions by decreasing methane emissions released from landfills, offsetting fossil fuel-based power generation with carbon credits and minimizing waste disposal transportation emissions.
Enexor is now preparing to deploy the Bio-CHP in Accra, Ghana where it will convert organic and plastic manufacturing waste into sustainable energy. Enexor is also looking forward to working with the local Accra community and NGOs to collect discarded plastics and organic waste diverting it from ending in the rivers and oceans and instead using them as renewable fuel sources. We can’t wait to see what we accomplish next as we celebrate Earth Day 2022 and think about the sustainable future Enexor is helping to empower.
If you want to learn more about how Google Cloud can help your startup, visit our page here to get more information about our program, and sign up for our communications to get a look at our community activities, digital events, special offers, and more.
More Relevant Stories for Your Company
Takeaways from the Google Cloud Public Sector Summit on Prioritizing Tech Investments
Editor’s note: Today’s post highlights five takeaways from our session at the first ever Google Cloud Public Sector Summit. To watch the full session, check out All the Right Moves: Prioritizing Investments in Technology. Now more than ever, government agencies need to invest in digital services to fulfill their missions and better
HSBC Looks to Google Cloud to Transform Banking
HSBC, a global bank that is a central part of global commerce with a presence in 67 countries, serving 38 million customers ranging from individuals to small businesses to corporations and governments, and having over $2.5 trillion assets in its balance sheet, had a vision of being a cloud first
Know Your Org’s Carbon Emission Per Workload with Active Assist
Last year, we analyzed the aggregate data from all customers across Google Cloud, and found over 600,000 gross kgCO2e in seemingly idle projects that could be cleaned up or reclaimed — which would have a similar impact to planting almost 10,000 trees1. Today, we’re making it easy for you to identify if
FFF Enterprises See 80% Improvements in Speed at Lower Cost by Moving SAP Data to Google Cloud
FFF Enterprises, a pharmaceutical distributor of lifesaving biopharma products, vaccines and plasma products deployed SAP on Google Cloud to leverage its ability to scale server demands, reduce costs and improve speed and performance. Learn how the migration helps FFF empower healthcare to care!
