Whether with the cloud or within their own data centers, enterprises have undergone a period of remarkable consolidation and centralization of their compute resources. But with the rise of ever more powerful mobile devices, and increasingly capable cellular networks, application architects are starting to think beyond the confines of the data center, and looking out to the edge. 

What exactly do we mean by edge? Think of the edge as distributed compute happening on a wide variety of non-traditional devices — mobile phones of course, but also equipment sensors in factories, industrial equipment, or even temperature and reaction monitoring in a remote lab. Edge devices are also connected devices, and can communicate back to the mothership over wireless or cellular networks. 

Equipped with increasingly powerful processors, these edge devices are being called upon to perform tasks that have thus far been outside the scope of traditional IT. For enterprises, this could mean pre-processing incoming telemetry in a vehicle, collecting video in kiosks at a mall, gathering quality control data with cameras in a warehouse, or delivering interactive media to retail stores. Enterprises are also relying on edge to ingest data from outposts or devices that have even more intermittent connectivity, e.g., oil rigs or farm equipment, filtering that data to improve quality, reducing it to right-size information load, and processing it in the cloud. New data and models are then pushed back to the edge; in addition, we can also push configuration, software, and media updates and decentralize processing workload.

Edge isn’t all about enabling new use cases – it’s also about right-sizing environments and improving resource utilization. For example, adopting an edge model can also relieve load on existing data centers. 

But while edge computing is full of promise for enterprises, there are many pieces that are still works in progress. Further, developing edge workloads is very different from developing traditional applications, which enjoy the benefits of persistent data connections and run on well-resourced hardware platforms. As such, cloud architects are still in the early days of figuring out how to use and implement edge for their organizations. 

Fortunately, there are tools you can use to help ease the transition to edge computing — and that likely fit into your organization’s existing computing systems. Kubernetes, of course, but also higher level management tools like Anthos, which provides a consistent control plane across cloud, private data center and edge locations. Other parts of the Anthos family – Anthos Config Management and Anthos Service Mesh — go one step further and provide consistent, centralized management to your edge and cloud deployments. And there’s more to come.

For the remainder of this blog post, we’ll dive deeper into the past and current state of edge computing, and the benefits that architects and developers can expect to see from edge computing. In a next post, we’ll take a deeper look at some of the challenges that designing for edge introduces, and some of the advantages the average enterprise has in adopting the edge model. Finally, we’ll look at the Google Cloud tools that are available today to help you build out your edge environment, and look at some early customer examples that highlight what’s possible today — and that will spark your imagination for what to do tomorrow. 

The evolution of edge computing 

The edge is not a new concept. In fact, it’s been around for the last two decades, spanning many use cases that are prevalent today. One of the first applications for edge was to use content delivery networks (CDN) to cache and serve daily static website pages near clients, for example, web servers in California data centers serving financial data to European customers. 

As connectivity has improved and software evolved, the edge has evolved too, and the focus has shifted towards using edge to distribute services. First, simple services expanded from static HTML to javascript libraries or image repositories. Common functions like image transformation, credit and address validation support services followed. Soon, organizations were deploying more complex cloudlet and clustered microservices installations, as well as distributed and replicated datasets. The term “endpoint” became ubiquitous, and APIs profilerated. 

In parallel, there’s been an explosion of creativity in hardware, microcontrollers and dedicated edge devices. Fit-for-purpose products were deployed globally. Services like Google Cloud IoT Core extended our ability to manage and securely connect these dispersed devices, allowing platform managers to register tools and leverage managed services like Pub/Sub and Dataflow for data ingestion. And with Kubernetes, large remote clusters — mini private clouds in and of themselves — operate as self-healing, autoscaling services across the broader internet, opening the door to new models for applications and architectural patterns. In short, both distributed asynchronous systems and economies have blossomed.

What does this mean for enterprises? For the purposes of this series, edge means you can now go beyond the corporate network, beyond cloud VPCs, and beyond hybrid. The modern edge is not sitting at a major remote data center, nor is it a CDN, cloud provider, or in a corporate data center rack — it’s just as likely to look like 100 of these attached to a thousand sensors.

Edge, in short, is about having hardware and devices installed at remote locations that can process and communicate back the information they collect and generate. The edge management challenge, meanwhile, is being able to push configuration and software/model/media updates to these remote locations when they are connected.

Enable new use cases

Today, we have reached a new threshold for edge computing — one where micro-data-processing centers are deployed as the edge of a fractal arm, as it were. Together, they form a broad, geographically distributed, always-on framework for streaming, collecting, processing and serving asynchronous data. This big, loosely coupled application system lives, breathes and grows. Always changing, always learning from the data it collects — and always pushing out updated models when the tendrils are connected. 

Right now, the rise of 5G is pushing the limits of edge even further. Devices enabled with 5G can transmit using a mobile network — no ISP required — enabling connectivity anywhere within reach of a cell tower. Granted, these networks have lower bandwidth, but they are often more than adequate for certain types of data, for example fire sensors in forests bordering remote towns that emit temperature or carbon monoxide data periodically. Recently, Google Cloud partnered with AT&T to enhance business use of 5G edge technology but there is so much more that can be done. 

Reduce data center investments

In addition to enabling the digitization of a broad range of new use cases, adopting edge can also benefit your existing data center.

Let’s face it: data centers are expensive to maintain. Moving some data center load to edge locations can reduce your data center infrastructure investment, as well as compute time spent there. Edge services tend to have much lower service level objectives (SLOs) than data center services, driving lower levels of hardware investment. Edge installations also tend to tolerate disconnectedness, and thus function perfectly well with lower SLOs — and lower costs. 

Let’s look at an example of where edge can really reduce costs: big data. Back in the day, we used to build monolithic serial processors — state machines — that had to keep track of where they were in processing in case of failure. But time and again, we’ve seen that smaller, more distributed processing can break down big, expensive problems into smaller, more cost-effective chunks. 

Starting with the explosion of MapReduce almost 20 years ago, big-data workloads were parallelized across clusters on a network, and state management was simplified with intermediate output to share, wait for, or restart processing from checkpoints. Those monolithic systems were replaced by cheaper, smarter, networked clusters and data repositories where parallel work could be executed and rendered into workable datasets. 

Flash forward to today, and we are seeing those same concepts applied and distributed to edge data-collection points. In this evolution of big data processing, we are scaling up and out to the point where observation data is so massive that it must first be prefiltered, and then preprocessed down to a manageable size and still be actionable. Only then should it be written back to the main data repositories for more resource-intensive processing and model building.

In short, data collection, cleanup, and potentially initial aggregation happens at the edge location, which reduces the amount of junk data sitting in costly data stores. This increases performance of the core data warehouse, and reduces the size and cost of network transfers and storage! 

The edge is a huge opportunity for today’s enterprises. But designing environments that can make effective use of the edge isn’t without its challenges. Stick around for part two of this series, where we look at some of the architectural challenges typically encountered while designing for the edge and how we begin to address them.

Getting started with Kubernetes is often harder than it needs to be. While working with a cluster “from scratch” can be a great learning exercise or a good solution for some highly specialized workloads, often the details of cluster management can be made easier by utilizing a managed service offering. Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) allows for an easier end-to-end developer experience with convenient tooling and built-in integrations along with the convenience of offering Kubernetes clusters as a managed service.

GKE is the most mature container orchestration service available today, delivering a fully-managed service and hands-off experience with the GKE Autopilot mode of operation. GKE provides industry-first capabilities such as release channels, multi-cluster support, unique four-way auto scaling, node auto repair, and can support up to 15K nodes in a single cluster. 

Our modern, end-to-end platform is built on cloud-native principles you are already familiar with and prioritizes speed, security, and flexibility, in ways that are highly differentiated from other cloud platforms. 

We have put together a new reference guide for you as you begin your journey developing on GKE. It covers every step of your journey from writing, running, operating, to managing code. Even if it isn’t your first time using GKE, this e-book will be a valuable resource highlighting important considerations and best practices. By implementing the technical recommendations, following the steps, and utilizing the tools described, you can reach the following goals:

• Write, deploy, and debug code faster with Cloud Code and Cloud Shell
• Continuously integrate and deliver updates with Cloud Build
• Run easily, securly, cost effectively at scale with GKE
• Monitor and troubleshoot with Google Cloud’s operations suite 

Kick-start your journey by downloading the e-book and join us live June 22 at 9am PDT for our half-day Cloud OnBoard event: Getting Started with Google Kubernetes Engine. 

Since we launched Google Workspace last October, we’ve heard from many of our customers—from global enterprises to small businesses—about the new ways they’re connecting, creating, and collaborating, often across living rooms, time zones, and continents. This response propels us on our mission to build for the future with a solution that’s flexible, helpful, and inspires innovation. We’re proud to support the millions of customers and billions of end-users who trust Google Workspace to bring their own future visions to life. 

Today, we’re excited to announce new innovations in Google Workspace that will further empower all the ways work happens—and deepen its impact—in an ever-changing world. These updates include a frontline worker solution, a set of features to help people find more time and focus, and powerful tools for strengthening collaboration.

Learning from our own transformation

At Google, like many of the organizations we support, we’ve been in a state of change, experimentation, and transformation this past year, as we reimagine what work will look like in the post-pandemic future. According to a Gartner survey, 90% of respondents plan to allow employees to work remotely at least part of the time even after the COVID-19 vaccine is widely adopted. This hybrid blend of at-home and in-office work will become the norm for many businesses. 

As a company, we’ve been focused on how we can make this new hybrid work model support collaboration and innovation, and enhance inclusion and wellbeing for Google employees. We’re especially interested in what we call collaboration equity, or the ability to contribute equally, regardless of location, role, experience level, language, and device preference. We’ve been experimenting with ways to bridge the gap between the in-person and the “somewhere else” by pushing our technology and the physical spaces of our campuses to be more inclusive. We’re looking for ways to maximize participation everywhere we can—from personal desk space to conference rooms to group collaboration areas.

Google Workspace is at the nexus of Google’s own transformation. After all, Google Workspace was built in the cloud to power flexible, real-time, anywhere creation and equitable collaboration. Whether it’s with our Google Meet Series One hardware kits that enable safe, touch-free meetings and use Google AI to create immersive and inclusive experiences for all. Or the ways we help people focus their time and attention with intelligent, proactive suggestions that thoughtfully connect distributed content, people, and conversations. Or the features that promote inclusion, like live captions in multiple languages, so that everyone can participate effectively in video meetings. 

It’s all part of Google Workspace’s mission to enable a hybrid work experience that enhances collaboration, strengthens human connection, and increases wellbeing for people—wherever they are and however they work.

And we’re inspired to hear how Google Workspace has been at the center of our customers’ evolving work plans, helping to forge human connection during a time of change for businesses like Sony Pictures Imageworks and Airbus. 

“As we look to the next chapter in the future of work, Google Workspace will continue to keep us connected, wherever we are. Google Meet helps us build trust and relationships, not only within the studio, but with a worldwide network of talent. And Chat is our go-to for sharing ideas and feedback during production meetings in real-time. Google Workspace is how we work together to create together!” 
– Mike Ford, VP, Software Development and Systems Engineering at Sony Pictures Imageworks 

“Airbus has spent the past year thinking about what it actually means to return to work and we’re looking to support greater flexibility with Google Workspace in a leading role. In 2020, we held 5.6M Google Meet sessions and we now have more than 70,000 shared Drives where people collaborate. Google Workspace has changed the way people work at Airbus and that will continue as the solution empowers the hybrid work reality.” 
– Andrew Plunkett, Airbus Vice President Digital Workplace

New ways to help businesses make an impact in changing times

Today, we’re announcing new tools and features to help people make the most of their time, collaborate equally, and deliver more impact. We’re also announcing new security tools with Assured Controls and expanded Data Regions coverage. Assured Controls will allow customers to make decisions about how to control provider access, while expanded Data Regions coverage helps customers choose where their data is geographically located at rest.

Enabling collaboration equity on the frontlines
From nurses to grocery store associates to warehouse employees, essential frontline workers have played a crucial and often heroic role during the pandemic. Despite their importance, those on the frontlines seldom have access to the same collaboration and communication tools that keep knowledge workers informed and connected. As a result, frontline workers often resort to their own personal devices and apps to get the information they need, when they need it. 

In the coming weeks, we’ll be launching Google Workspace Frontline with these challenges in mind. This will open up communication and collaboration channels between frontline workers and corporate teams in a way that’s safe and secure. Workspace Frontline is a custom solution that includes communication and collaboration apps like Gmail, Chat, Docs, Drive, and more, as well as business-grade support and security features like advanced endpoint management that help keep a company’s data secure. 

We’ve also made it easier for business teams to build custom AppSheet apps directly from Google Sheets and Drive, so that frontline workers can digitize and streamline their work, whether it’s collecting data in the field, reporting safety risks, or managing customer requests. By closing the gap between the frontline and the corporate team, we’re giving frontline workers secure access, on any device, to the information they need to be at their best.

Managing time and attention 
To help people save valuable time, we’re excited to share that using Google Workspace with Google Assistant is now generally available. You can ask Google what’s next on your work calendar, to quickly join meetings, or to send a message. Google Assistant is currently available for Google Workspace on supported mobile devices and is in beta for smart speakers and Smart Displays, like Nest Hub Max. Google Workspace customers can learn how to enable this feature for their users here.

Elsewhere on the time management front, a key trend we’re seeing in today’s workforce is the juggling of professional and personal responsibilities, with many employees now working in “sprints,” like two- to four-hour blocks of time instead of the traditional workday. As more businesses embrace a flexible, hybrid model, we expect this trend to continue, and we’ll all need tools to help us achieve better work-life balance and make the best use of our time.

In the coming weeks, we’re releasing an integrated set of features in Google Workspace that help people easily share their work hours and location, while also finding more time to focus on what matters most. Features like segmentable working hours, recurring out-of-office entries, and location indicators let employees share their availability and location with their colleagues. Meanwhile, a new event type—Focus Time—lets people minimize distractions by limiting notifications during these event windows. All these availability and location indicators will show up seamlessly across Google Workspace, as teams engage with Calendar, Meet, Chat, and Gmail. We’ll also be delivering Time Insights to Google Workspace users (visible to the employee only, not their manager), so that employees can assess how they’re spending their time against their own priorities.

Strengthening collaboration equity for all
Ever since we pioneered real-time document editing fifteen years ago, collaboration has been a cornerstone for Google Workspace. In the coming months, we’ll make collaboration more equitable and accessible in a number of ways. First, we’re creating second-screen experiences in Google Meet for those using a mix of devices to host their meetings, like Google Meet hardware for those in conference rooms and Nest Hub Max for those at home. With new second-screen capabilities, people can present and fully participate in the Google Meet experience, including with chat, polls, and Q&As, from any device, no matter where they are.

And specifically for those joining meetings from their mobile devices, we’re making it easier to have a bigger impact on a smaller screen. We’re rolling out mobile tile view so you can see more people at once, while split-screen and picture-in-picture support on Meet mobile will help you seamlessly chat or browse your Gmail without missing the visual thread of a meeting. Mobile support for background replace, Q&A, and polls will also help you stay productive and connected on the go.

Live streams will also become more powerful and inclusive in Google Workspace with the addition of Q&A, polls, and live captions (in English, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and French). And because we recognize how organizations are connecting across different groups of people, we’re also enabling live streaming across multiple Google Workspace domains within the same organization. 

Finally, to give teams even more ways to connect and collaborate, we’re adding Chat, Jamboard, and Calendar to Google Workspace Essentials.

Building the future of work—together
If there’s a mantra that captures the last year of work, it might be “flexibility in the face of change.” It’s how our customers and our own employees have bridged the physical distances to continue making an impact in a rapidly changing world. As work continues to evolve for all of us, Google Workspace is committed to providing a solution that’s flexible, helpful, and that fuels innovation. We’re also committed to enabling collaboration equity wherever and however we can. At its core, this has been our mission for more than a decade and we’re excited to partner with our customers and users to continue bringing it to life.

Prior to joining Google Cloud, I spent 20 years in the public sector serving in various security roles, most recently as the head of the cybersecurity division at the newly established Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). I was responsible for delivering services and capabilities to about 100 civilian agencies, as well as our critical infrastructure for state and local partners across the country.

Throughout my time serving in the U.S. government, I spent a great deal of energy working to keep bad actors out of our systems. What I eventually realized was that we were at a disadvantage. We didn’t just have legacy systems to deal with; we also had a legacy mindset. Our policies and capabilities were overly reliant on a perimeter-based approach to defense and introduced layers of friction with tools like VPNs, which inhibited productivity and increased frustration.

I spent the last few years of my time in the government doing my best to modernize this approach to security and supporting the many people who shared this vision. While most of them are still there, doing excellent work, repeated cybersecurity breaches of U.S. government systems have interrupted vital work and cost taxpayers billions of dollars. The SolarWinds breach in 2020, for example, may have cost governments and businesses more than $100 billion and the loss of vital national security information. Yet many government agencies continue to rely on the same legacy productivity software.

Today, a new survey conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and commissioned by Google Cloud shows that many government workers echo these concerns. The survey—which polled 2,600 working Americans, includes 600 workers from the D.C. metro area and 338 workers employed by federal, state, or local governments across the country—found that the majority of government employees surveyed reported being “very” concerned about cyberattacks striking their employers in the coming years. And nearly one-third of surveyed government employees in the D.C. metro area say they have experienced a disruption at work because of a cyberattack.

Results from the survey also showed a lack of satisfaction with legacy software, with more than 50% of government workers nationally responding that there are other products and services that could help them do their jobs better.

These new findings not only speak to the challenges our government employees face, but also outline an opportunity for improved innovation and security that can help government employees better achieve their missions.

Concerns about cybersecurity

The majority of respondents said they believed it was likely that the federal government would be the victim of a cyberattack in the next few years. This percentage was even higher in the D.C. metro area and among government employees, with 40% of government workers living in metro D.C. saying it was “very likely.”

Respondents in all groups—national, D.C. metro, and government employees—were more likely to be concerned about cyberattacks as the perceived threat moved closer to home. For example, 80% of those surveyed said that recent attacks have them concerned about their personal data and privacy, and that of their family members. And for those in the D.C. area or in government jobs, the numbers were consistently higher than the national average.

One likely reason for such broad concern about cyberattacks is that many respondents reported experiencing a cyberattack at work. And while more than one-in-ten workers nationally have experienced disruptions from a cyberattack, the number increased to nearly one-in-three for D.C.-based government employees—nearly three times higher than the national average.

The problem with IT ‘monoculture’

According to survey respondents, 84% of D.C. metro government employees primarily use Microsoft products at work, including Word, Outlook, Teams, and OneDrive. This is confirmed by another recent study by Omdia that found 85% of government employees use Microsoft productivity software, far and away the largest IT productivity vendor by market share.

This reliance on a single software suite might suggest that these products are safe and secure, but the Public Opinion Strategies survey found that more than half of all respondents said that the government’s reliance on these Microsoft products actually made the federal government more vulnerable to hacking or cyberattacks.

Given these vulnerabilities, why does government IT continue to rely on the same set of productivity tools in the workplace? The reason, according to survey respondents, has more to do with inertia than innovation. When asked why their employers used Microsoft services, around half said that the reason their employer continues to choose legacy, incumbent vendors was more about not wanting to change than wanting the most effective tool for the job.

Choice and shadow IT

Coupled with these concerns about vulnerabilities comes a noted sentiment among those surveyed that their current IT solutions are not best for their needs. About half of those surveyed who primarily use Microsoft at work said that they would prefer to have a choice to use products and services from other companies. And among those who use Microsoft at work, 43% believe there are other products and services that would allow them to do their job better.

This may be leading workers to adopt “shadow IT,” or using products and services that are not officially approved or endorsed by their IT departments. In fact, the Public Opinion Strategies survey found that 35% of D.C. metro government workers have used shadow IT to get their jobs done. And among workers aged 20 to 34, that number jumps to 41%.

Rethinking IT purchasing priorities

With so many survey respondents reporting that they are dissatisfied with their legacy IT solutions, it may be time for the government to rethink its approach to procurement. In a separate research survey from Omdia in December 2021, 250 people responsible for technology purchasing decisions in the U.S. federal, state, and local governments said that government technology and procurement practices often are more about making things easier for IT vs. choosing what employees feel would be the best solution. In fact, only 27% of officials surveyed in that research cited “user demand” as a factor affecting their purchasing decisions.

As governments work to meet the demands and preferences of their constituents—and their employees—it’s clear that there’s an overreliance on legacy solutions, despite a track record of cybersecurity vulnerabilities and poor user perception.

At Google Cloud, we believe it’s time for more diversity and choice in the tools available for our civil servants across the nation—70% of whom use Gmail outside of work, according to our survey. Government workers have the right to benefit from the same flexible, secure-by-design tools at the office that they use in their personal lives. You can learn more about Google Workspace for Government here.