Blockchain technology is yielding tremendous innovation and value creation for consumers and businesses around the world. As the technology becomes more mainstream, companies need scalable, secure, and sustainable infrastructure on which to grow their businesses and support their networks. We believe Google Cloud can play an important role in this evolution.

Building on our existing work with blockchain developers, exchanges, and other companies in this space, we are announcing today a new, dedicated Digital Assets Team within Google Cloud to support our customers’ needs in building, transacting, storing value, and deploying new products on blockchain-based platforms. This new team will enable our customers to accelerate their efforts in this emerging space and help underpin the blockchain ecosystems of tomorrow. 

What We’re Doing Today (and Into the Future)

Blockchain and distributed-ledger-based companies like Hedera, Theta Labs, and Dapper Labs have already chosen to build on top of Google Cloud for scalability, flexibility, and security. Moving forward, Google Cloud’s Digital Assets Team will undertake a number of short- and long-term initiatives to support companies in the digital assets/blockchain ecosystem, including:

• Providing dedicated node hosting/remote procedure call (RPC) nodes for developers, allowing users to deploy blockchain validators on Google Cloud via a single click (“click to deploy”).
• Participating in node validation and on-chain governance with select partners.
• Helping developers and users host their nodes on the cleanest cloud in the industry, supporting their environmental, social, and governance initiatives.
• Supporting on-chain governance via participation from Google Cloud executives and senior engineers.
• Hosting several public BigQuery datasets on our Marketplace, including full blockchain transaction history for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Litecoin, Zcash, Theta, Hedera Hashgraph, Band Protocol, Polygon, XRP, and Dogecoin.
• Driving co-development and integration into Google’s robust partner ecosystem, including participating in the Google Cloud Marketplace.
• Embracing joint go-to-market initiatives with our ecosystem partners where Google Cloud can be the connective tissue between traditional enterprise and blockchain technologies.

As we build out our team, we’re also exploring opportunities in the future to enable Google Cloud customers to make and receive payments using cryptocurrencies.

Why Partner with Google Cloud

Our customers in this space—both traditional firms seeking to implement blockchain strategies and blockchain-native companies, such as exchanges, app providers, and decentralized platforms—are choosing Google Cloud for three key reasons:

• First, their businesses and their developer ecosystems can build on the industry’s cleanest cloud. Growing in a sustainable manner is top-of-mind for many businesses, but is particularly relevant in the blockchain space, where the ability to run and scale sustainably is critical. Google is carbon neutral today, and we’ve announced our goal to run on carbon-free energy, 24/7 at all of our data centers by 2030. We’ve also rolled out the ability for customers to choose a Google Cloud region in which to run based on carbon footprint data.
• Second, developers building on blockchain-based platforms can benefit from Google’s world-class developer platform. Google Cloud infrastructure ensures that developers can speed up the delivery of software and data on the blockchain, delivering fast access to applications for users. 
• Third, Google Cloud technologies and services will ensure that blockchain-based companies can scale securely and reliably. Google can ensure that data, applications, games, or digital assets like NFTs will be delivered on a stable, secure, and trusted global network.

Google Cloud’s Approach to Blockchain and Digital Assets

Blockchains and digital assets are changing the way the world stores and moves its information —as well as value. As an infrastructure provider, Google Cloud views the evolution of blockchain technology and decentralized networks today as analogous to the rise of open source and the internet 10-15 years ago. Just as open source developments were integral to the early days of the internet, blockchain is yielding innovation and value creation for consumers and businesses. As the technology becomes more mainstream, companies will need scalable, secure infrastructure on which to grow their businesses and support their networks.

As such, we’re applying Google Cloud technology to the blockchain market with the following principles:

• Consistent with Google Cloud’s core business: We are specialists in data-powered innovation with leading infrastructure, industry solutions, and other cutting-edge technology. We pursue blockchain projects and partnerships that align with our mission and our expertise.
• User trust and governance: Blockchain networks raise novel questions concerning legal compliance and user privacy. We will maintain our commitment to our users through a robust focus on privacy and user trust, as well as an uncompromising focus on compliance with applicable laws.
• Network-agnostic: Google’s infrastructure will seek to preserve optionality of networks for the benefit of users. 

We’re inspired by the work already done in the digital assets space by our customers, and we look forward to providing the infrastructure and technologies to support what’s possible with blockchain technologies in the future. If you’re eager to learn more about Google Cloud’s new Digital Assets Team, please reach out to your Google Cloud sales representative or partner manager.

Reliably executing tasks on a schedule is critical for everything from data engineering, to infrastructure management, and application maintenance. Today, we are thrilled to announce that Google Cloud Scheduler, our enterprise-grade scheduling service, is now available in more GCP regions and multiple regions can now be used from a single project removing the prior limit of a single region per project.

With many enterprise customers deploying complex distributed cloud systems, Cloud Scheduler has helped solve the problem of single-server cron scheduling being a single point of failure. With this update you are now able to create Scheduler jobs across distinct cloud regions that can help satisfy cross-regional availability and fail-over scenarios. 

Furthermore, you are no longer required to create an AppEngine application in order to use Cloud Scheduler. For existing Cloud Scheduler jobs, it is safe to disable the AppEngine application within the project. Jobs will continue to function without an AppEngine application. 

Creating jobs in different regions is easy. You simply pick the location where you would like your job to run. For example you can specify a location when creating a job through the gcloud command line :

HTTP Targets

  gcloud scheduler jobs create http <job-name> 
--location <cloud-region>
--schedule <cron-schedule> 
--uri <target-uri>

Pub/Sub Topics

  gcloud scheduler jobs create pubsub <job-name> 
--location <cloud-region>
--schedule <cron-schedule>
--topic <topic-name>
(--message-body <message-body> | --message-body-from-file <file-path>)

AppEngine Services

  gcloud scheduler jobs create app-engine <job-name>
--location <cloud-region> 
--schedule <cron-schedule>

Or you can pick a location when creating a job through the Cloud Console:

Google Cloud Scheduler is now available in 23 GCP Regions,  and this number is expected to grow in the future. You can always find an up-to-date list of available regions by running:

  gcloud scheduler locations list

We hope you are as excited about this launch as we are. Please reach out to us with any suggestions or questions in our public issue tracker.

The app economy has enabled a huge range of unique business models to flourish. One such model is online food ordering and delivery services, in which apps leverage geo-location data to aggregate local food choices and offer personalized options to consumers.

A leading company in this space is Just Eat. Launched in the UK in 2001 with a vision of ‘serving the world’s greatest menu. Brilliantly.’ The company has capitalized on the popularity of online food delivery and grown its presence across 12 markets. 

Just Eat acts as an intermediary between take-out food outlets and hungry customers, giving local restaurants access to a broader base of potential diners, while providing consumers with an easy and secure way to order and pay for food from their favourite restaurants.

Today the company helps 27 million customers find food from more than 112,000 restaurants—everything from homemade Italian pasta, to Chinese noodle bowls, to fish-and-chips. 

Data is the fuel of Just Eat’s rapid growth, but it wasn’t always looked at that way. In its early days, Just Eat struggled with the deluge of information and faced fragmentation across its systems. In fact, the company realized its legacy data vendor wasn’t capable of ingesting 90 percent of the data produced by its food platform. This was incredibly frustrating for Just Eat’s analysts and data scientists, who had to waste time cleaning up sources instead of leveraging the data to create a better user experience. 

Just Eat turned to Google Cloud, and now uses machine learning (ML) to power sophisticated consumer recommendations on both its app and website. It also makes heavy use of features offered by Google Cloud Platform, including BigQuery for running analytics on its customer data set and Cloud Pub/Sub for messaging app users with relevant offers in real-time. 

Having all of Just Eat’s data in one platform has translated into real value for its customers. With Google Cloud tools, Just Eat has created its own proprietary Customer Ontology framework, which today contains 5.5 billion features that better understand consumers’ behavior and food habits, and provides insights into previous visits.

Just Eat recently created an “Adventurous Index” to map its customers according to their ordering habits, enabling them to tailor their marketing and user experiences. For example, mid-adventurous customers are shown a choice of restaurants that serve their most ordered cuisine, while adventurous customers can choose from restaurants that serve a wider variety. This not only has prompted consumers to be more adventurous with their choices, but also has led to more business at a more diverse set of restaurants.

Matt Cresswell, Director of Customer Platforms at Just Eat said that Google Cloud has become integral to its product delivery: “Consumer food choice is a hugely nuanced topic. We know that individuals have their own unique journeys when they use Just Eat. We’ve sought to create a truly one-to-one relationship with every customer. The changes we’ve made to the platform mean they can access the dishes they enjoy at the touch of a fingertip, and find inspiration to discover new dishes they’ll love. We’re grateful to Google Cloud for helping us support our customers on their culinary explorations.”

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.