Take a Look at 30 Eventrac Locations!
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New locations in Eventarc
Back in August, we announced more Eventarc locations (17 new regions, as well as 6 new dual-region and multi-region locations to be precise). This takes the total number of locations in Eventarc to more than 30. You can see the full list in the Eventarc locations page or by running gcloud eventarc locations list .
What does location mean in Eventarc?
An Eventarc location usually refers to the single region that the Eventarc trigger gets created in. However, depending on the trigger type, the location can be more than a single region:
- Pub/Sub triggers only support single-region locations.
- Cloud Storage triggers support single-region, dual-region, and multi-region locations.
- Cloud Audit Logs triggers support single-region locations and the special
globalregion.
Before looking into trigger location in more detail, let’s look at other locations relevant in Eventarc.
What other locations are relevant in Eventarc?
Triggers connect event sources to event targets:
Each event source, event target, and trigger has its own location. Sometimes, these locations have to match and sometimes they can be different.
Here’s an example of a trigger connecting Cloud Storage events from a bucket in the europe-west1 region to a Cloud Run service in the us-central1 region with a trigger located in the europe-west1 region:
gcloud eventarc triggers create trigger-storage \--destination-run-service=hello \--destination-run-region=us-central1 \--location=europe-west1 \--event-filters="type=google.cloud.storage.object.v1.finalized" \--event-filters="bucket=my-bucket-in-europe-west1-region" \--service-account=$PROJECT_NUMBER-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com
In many cases, you don’t have control over the location of the event source. In the example above, the Cloud Storage bucket is in the europe-west1 region. That’s the location that you need to work with and it has implications for the trigger location (which I’ll get to later).
The location of the event target is the region of the service where you want the events to go. You get to choose this from one of the supported regions when you deploy your Cloud Run service. You typically want this to be in the same region as your event source for latency and data locality reasons (but this is not strictly a requirement). In the example above, the event source (bucket) is in europe-west1 but the event target (Cloud Run service) is in us-central1 as specified by the --destination-run-region flag.
The location of the trigger is dictated by the event source location, but the trigger type also comes into play. It is specified by the –location flag. Let’s take a look at the trigger location for each trigger type in more detail.
Location in Pub/Sub triggers
In a Pub/Sub trigger, you connect a Pub/Sub topic to an event target. Pub/Sub topics are global and not tied to a single region. However, when you create a Pub/Sub trigger, you need to specify a region for it (because Eventarc triggers need to live in a region) with the --location flag as follows:
gcloud eventarc triggers create trigger-pubsub \--destination-run-service=hello \--destination-run-region=us-central1 \--location=us-central1 \--event-filters="type=google.cloud.pubsub.topic.v1.messagePublished" \--transport-topic=projects/your-projectid/topics/your-topic
By specifying a location, Eventarc automatically configures the geofencing feature in Pub/Sub such that events only persist in the specified location. As I noted above, you typically want to (but are not required to) choose the same region for the trigger and the Cloud Run service for lower latency and data locality. You can also use regional Pub/Sub service endpoints to publish to the topic to ensure that all of the data stays in a single region.
Location in Cloud Storage triggers
In a Cloud Storage trigger, you connect a Cloud Storage bucket to an event target. A Cloud Storage bucket can be in a single-region (e.g. europe-west1), dual-region (e.g. eur4), or multi-region (e.g. eu) location. The location of the bucket dictates the location of the trigger and they have to match. The earlier trigger example was for a bucket in the europe-west1 single-region location. Here’s another trigger connecting Cloud Storage events from a bucket in the eu multi-region location. Notice how the location flag matches the bucket region:
gcloud eventarc triggers create trigger-storage \--destination-run-service=hello \--destination-run-region=us-central1 \--location=eu \--event-filters="type=google.cloud.storage.object.v1.finalized" \--event-filters="bucket=my-bucket-in-eu-multi-region" \--service-account=$PROJECT_NUMBER-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com
If the bucket region and the trigger region do not match, you’ll see an error:
ERROR: (gcloud.eventarc.triggers.create) INVALID_ARGUMENT: The request was invalid: Bucket "my-bucket-in-eu-multi-region" location "eu" does not match trigger location "europe-west1". Try again by creating the trigger in "eu".
Location in Cloud Audit Logs triggers
In a Cloud Audit Logs trigger, you connect any event source that emits Audit Logs to an event target. The location of the event source will dictate the trigger location. This is typically a single region but there is a special global region that’s necessary in some cases.
For example, if you want to read Cloud Storage events from a bucket in the europe-west1 region with an Audit Logs trigger, you will create the trigger with the same location. Note that this will match all buckets in the europe-west1 region as there’s no filter by bucket in Audit Logs:
gcloud eventarc triggers create trigger-auditlog \--destination-run-service=hello \--destination-run-region=us-central1 \--location=europe-west1 \--event-filters="type=google.cloud.audit.log.v1.written" \--event-filters="serviceName=storage.googleapis.com" \--event-filters="methodName=storage.objects.create" \--service-account=$PROJECT_NUMBER-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com
On the other hand, if you want to match a dual-region or a multi-region bucket such as eu, you will create the trigger with the global location as Audit Logs triggers only support a single or global region. Note that this will match all buckets in all regions globally:
gcloud eventarc triggers create trigger-storage \--destination-run-service=hello \--destination-run-region=us-central1 \--location=global \--event-filters="type=google.cloud.storage.object.v1.finalized" \--event-filters="bucket=my-bucket-in-europe-west1-region" \--service-account=$PROJECT_NUMBER-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com
As you can see from this example, if you want to read Cloud Storage events, the native Cloud Storage trigger is a much better option, but this example illustrates a typical case in which a global Audit Log trigger is necessary.
That wraps up this closer look at locations in Eventarc. Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @meteatamel for any questions or feedback.
Indian social media platform ShareChat saw a 50% reduction in costs after migrating to Google Cloud
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One of the key trends that emerged from the lockdown brought about by the COVID-19 outbreak was the significant rise in people seeking entertainment online.
According to data released by Carat India, smartphone usage increased by 1.5 hours a week and social media consumption nearly doubled to 280 minutes a day. Of India’s 670 million internet users, a significant percentage live in rural areas, which saw a surge in demand for local language content.
As India’s premier social media platform, ShareChat saw significant engagement from its 60 million monthly active users (MAU) during the lockdown. The platform now has surpassed 120 million MAU post the government banning 59 Chinese apps in the last week of June.
ShareChat was founded by Ankush Sachdeva (co-founder and Chief Executive Officer), Farid Ahsan (co-founder and Chief Operating Officer), and Bhanu Pratap Singh (co-founder and Chief Technical Officer), in 2015.
In a recent conversation with YourStory, Bhanu spoke about content consumption during COVID-19, how they are reaching out to the country’s vernacular audience and their recent transition to Google Cloud.
Read the Full Story on YourStory
Vodafone Leverages Google Cloud to Aid COVID-19 Frontline with Anonymized Insights on Population Mobility
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Editor’s note: When Europe’s largest mobile communications company, Vodafone, was asked by the European Commission to help understand population movement across the European Union and the UK to help fight COVID-19, it was able to provide anonymized mobile network-based insights to answer the call. Here’s how Vodafone, with the support of Google Cloud, rapidly mobilized the COVID-19 frontline, while respecting its customers’ privacy.
With the emergence of COVID-19 in early 2020, the European Commission—the executive branch of the European Union (EU)—knew that technology would be instrumental in its fight to control the pandemic. With various lockdowns imposed across its member states, the Commission was keen to predict and prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to manage the related social, political and financial impacts.
Mobile network data helps track COVID-19 across the EU
Mobile networks produce location data, which can be turned into useful anonymous insights to understand population movement within a geographic area. The European Commission, working with mobile industry association GSMA (Groupe Speciale Mobile Association), asked Europe’s major mobile phone operators for help in producing insights to support the fight against COVID-19. As the largest mobile network operator within the EU, Vodafone saw this as a critical opportunity to participate.
Vodafone had previous experience of using mobile network data to support pandemic research. For example, in 2019, Vodafone provided mobility pattern analysis to help track the spread of Malaria in Mozambique. And, during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic (prior to working with the European Commission), Vodafone assisted the Italian and Spanish governments in understanding their citizens’ mobility patterns. Vodafone had also previously offered anonymized and aggregated population mobility insights to support public transport and tourism authorities and retail organizations in a number of countries. Consequently, Vodafone was perfectly placed to play a greater role in supporting the European Commission’s response to the pandemic.
When asked to assist the European Commission, Vodafone first considered how it could safely share its data with the governing body without providing details on the individual movements of its customers. It realized it could achieve this through an elaborate set of anonymization and aggregation techniques. Insights are aggregated from a minimum of 50 users and Vodafone only shared these anonymous insights and never the actual raw data with the Commission. As specified by the EU, these insights are then presented onto a large geographical region, typically a city or a county with thousands of people living in that area.
These insights illustrate how people move, helping to determine how lockdowns and self-isolation measures were impacting behaviors.
Using Google Cloud to collate and store population mobility data
In April 2020, Vodafone began migrating its operations, including its mobile data, to Google Cloud on servers in Europe and the UK with elaborate security safeguards, including encryption, building on a previous partnership.
With the data residing in EU and UK data centers and not the United States, Vodafone could then retrieve anonymous insights from Google Cloud Storage instantaneously. Before supplying any information to the European Commission, however, Vodafone used Dataflow to validate the data and run a series of tests to ensure the database had accurate data, before ingesting and archiving the relevant metrics. For instant access, the data was then made available to the European Commission using a Redis database on Google Kubernetes Engine.
To ensure aggregate Vodafone customer data was always safe, secure, and anonymous, all entry points to the front-end were protected behind Google Cloud Armor, where only specific IP addresses were allowed. Using these tools, seamless data pipelines fed in predefined key performance indicators from each specified European market. While data quality measures ensured the definitions for metrics across markets were consistent and could be accurately compared.
The architecture (pictured below) shows how Vodafone integrated and anonymized its data on Google Cloud.
Live interactive dashboard shows population mobility in real-time
With its data integrated on Google Cloud, Vodafone created a live, interactive dashboard to track mobility patterns and share relevant information with the European Commission in real-time.
The European Commission Joint Research Center (JRC) was able to gather valuable information from these insights, which enabled them to see where population mobility was aiding the spread of the disease, when cross-referenced with health data. It could also assess the implications of lockdowns on different populations and forecast cross-country spreading.
Mobile data aids disease modeling for multiple stakeholders
The Vodafone data became instrumental in modeling the likely course of the disease too. For example, the University of Southampton in the UK used it to predict the outcome of different coordinated COVID-19 exit strategies across Europe. This research was published in Science Magazine in September 2020.
The Vodafone data dashboard continues to be used by individual governments, NGOs and organizations to further investigate the impacts of the pandemic and to measure the effectiveness of response strategies alongside the rollout of vaccination programs. The project also helped Vodafone win a DataIQ award for most effective stakeholder engagement.
Using the learnings from this project, Vodafone has been able to adapt its own B2B solution, called Vodafone Analytics, by adaptIng and migrating the code to work in Google Cloud Platform. This solution has been rolled out across Germany, Greece, Portugal and South Africa, and new countries are being onboarded every day. Vodafone Analytics already has more than 100 customers leveraging it for a variety of use cases—Italian fashion retailer OVS, uses it for its smart retail operation, while global real estate company, JLL, uses it to understand the footfall passing through its properties.
Working together, Vodafone and Google Cloud continue to help a range of organizations, governments, and NGOs navigate through the ongoing pandemic, optimize their operations, and help the greater good, without infringing individuals’ fundamental rights to privacy.
To learn more about Google Cloud and Vodafone, watch our full interview here.
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Target Leverages Google Cloud to Create Market-defining Online Experience
In the hyper-competitive world of online retail sales, ease-of-use and transaction speed can make or break business outcomes. However, a few years ago US Retail giant Target was going through a period of uncertainty.
While the company had over 1800 stores across the US with an estimated 85% of US consumers shopping at a Target store and over 25 million people visiting the Target website or using its app each month, it was still losing ground.
In spite of having millions of loyal customers, the company was dangerously late on digital and its technology wasn’t keeping pace with unstable systems to boot. The company faced the twin challenges of trying to operate today’s business as efficiently as possible and creating tomorrow’s business as quickly as possible. On the one hand it needed productivity and stability and on the other it wanted speed and disruption. Not an easy task to accomplish.
That’s when Target decided to use Google Cloud to solve its challenges. See how Target leveraged Google Cloud to create a market-defining online experience that has made customers happier and more loyal.
Google Cloud and Univision Partnership to Up the Ante in UX for Spanish-speaking Audience
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The past year has given everyone lots to think about—about our priorities as people and as businesses. As the world retreated behind closed doors, we saw how shared interests and experiences can bring us together. As the world grappled with a common enemy, we witnessed just how differently individuals, communities and indeed entire countries can experience a situation. And as we faced seemingly unending obstacles to making it through the pandemic, we saw how making smart decisions based on data can drive meaningful solutions—fast.
That’s why we here at Google Cloud are so proud to partner Univision, the country’s leading Spanish-language content and media company. By partnering with Google Cloud, Univision will be able to accelerate growth across its portfolio of properties, deliver an enhanced user experience for Spanish-speaking audiences and provide the enterprise solutions needed to create the Spanish-language media company of the future.
According to Instituto Cervantes, there are over 580 million Spanish language speakers worldwide. Those viewers, like people everywhere, are avid consumers of streaming content. In Q4 of 2020 alone, viewing time for that content increased by 44%1, and in 2020, from 50%2 more sources. With that surge in demand, Univision needed a cloud provider whose infrastructure could reach Hispanic viewers around the world. With two-plus decades spent building out its network and data centers, as well as global content-delivery capabilities, Google Cloud has the infrastructure Univision needs to reach viewers across the Spanish-speaking world.
At the same time, with such a diverse audience for their content, Univision needs to target that content to viewers’ specific preferences. By applying Google Cloud’s artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technology across its content, Univision intends to personalize content based on shows users have previously watched, enhancing their engagement and viewing experience.
And as Univision transforms the user experience, it can use Google Cloud’s data and analytics suite to garner deeper insights into its audience and forge stronger relationships with them on an individual basis. With Looker and BigQuery, Univision employees will have access to real-time data to help them make business decisions about programming.
Univision will also migrate video distribution and production operations to Google Cloud, where we’ll help them streamline media workflows and develop innovative new capabilities. Meanwhile, Google Cloud’s tight business and technical integration with other Google services will help ensure Univision reaches viewers on the device of their choice, wherever they are in the world. For example, in the coming years, Univision will expand its global YouTube partnership and will integrate with entertainment features on Google Search that help people better discover TV shows and movies. The company will also use Google Ad Manager for global ad decisioning and Google’s Dynamic Ad Insertion for PrendeTV and future video-on-demand offerings. Finally, Univision will distribute its content and services on Google Play across Android phones and tablets, as well as Google TV and other Android TV OS devices.
We’re thrilled to partner with Univision to help them reach the Spanish-speaking world with their content. With our cloud portfolio, we can help them reach individual viewers around the world, with personalized content that they can consume however they see fit. Best of all, together, we can help them achieve this vision fast, leveraging established cloud, content delivery, and data analytics technologies. You can learn more about the partnership here.
8 Must-Have Google Cloud Products for Startups
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Startups worldwide turn to Google Cloud tools to build fast on a strong and easy to use platform that helps them get to market and launch products faster, all while building on the cleanest cloud in the industry. Startups leverage Google Cloud and our Google for Startups Cloud Program to go from idea to IPO, and there are a variety of products on Google Cloud that can help them.
Here are the 8 top products that startups use on Google Cloud to innovate and grow:
Firebase for app development
Speed up innovation with Firebase, a mobile development platform that’s fully integrated with Google Cloud. Work in a simpler cloud environment, easily pull in products or services, and build your apps faster.
Cloud SQL for database needs
Build your startup’s foundation with Cloud SQL, a fully managed relational database solution that integrates with Google Cloud services. Create and connect to your first database in minutes and scale with a single API call.
AI and machine learning products
Solve tough problems with AI and machine learning products, built with the best of Google’s technology. Train deep learning and machine learning models cost-effectively so you can iterate and innovate faster.
BigQuery for data analytics
Drive agility with BigQuery, a serverless, cost-effective, multi-cloud data warehouse. Query streaming data in real time, predict business outcomes with built-in machine learning, and share analytics with just a few clicks.
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) for containers
Unlock faster, more secure app development with GKE, the most scalable Kubernetes platform. Streamline operations with release channels that fit your business needs and leave cluster monitoring to Google engineers.
Looker for data visualization
Get more from your data to keep moving ahead of the competition with Looker, a trusted business intelligence and data platform. Generate real-time reports and get insights at the right time with proactive alerts.
Cloud Run for serverless computing
Create scalable containerized apps in any programming language on Cloud Run, a fully managed compute platform. Pair it with container tools like Cloud Build and Docker, and only pay when your code is running.
Cloud Armor for security
Protect your startup from Web attacks with Cloud Armor, a leading Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDOS) defense service. Use it with an HTTP Load Balancer for Managed Instance Groups across regions to keep your workloads highly available and secure.
To learn more about products best-suited to the unique demands of startups, check out our startups solution page. Our team is looking forward to discussing how these products can help you. If you’re not already in the program, you can get started here.
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.
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