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Showing posts from February, 2021

New to Google Cloud? Here are a few training options to help you get started

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  Google Cloud has the tools you need to build apps faster and make smarter business decisions. To help you get started with Google Cloud, and get the most from the platform, we’ve put together a list of no-cost resources below.  Get hands-on experience with Google Cloud fundamentals Join our half-day event, Cloud OnBoard: Begin with Google Cloud Fundamentals, on Feb. 23 to learn about the basics of Google Cloud from experts.  Experts will start by introducing the core components of Google Cloud and provide an overview of how its tools impact the entire cloud computing landscape. The event will then cover Compute Engine and how to create VM instances from scratch and from existing templates, how to connect them together, and end with projects that can talk to each other safely and securely. You will also learn about the different storage and database options available on Google Cloud.  Afterwards, you’ll have a chance to explore other Google Cloud offerings like Kube...

An introduction to Apigee : Bridging the gaps with API management

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Businesses migrating their SAP environments to Google Cloud do so for a number of reasons. Most cite the agility, scalability and security advantages of migrating SAP workloads to Google Cloud; many also focus on improved uptime and performance.  At some point, most businesses also want to explore the idea that there's a fortune locked up in their business data—and that the cloud holds the key. But leveraging the cloud to transform data into dollars is a process that involves special challenges—and specialized tools to address these challenges. For businesses running SAP environments in the cloud, most of which maintain a significant stake in legacy systems and data stores, the challenges tend to get even bigger. The promises and pitfalls of APIs This is where Google Cloud’s advanced data analytics, machine learning and AI capabilities, especially our API (application programming interface) management tools, come into play. Our Apigee API Management Platform is emerging as a star p...

Limit Google Drive sharing to specific groups with target audiences, now generally available

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  Admins can indeed define particular groups for which Google Drive files can be link-shared. This will help ensure the security of the data and make it easy for users to share files with the right colleagues. Based on beta release feedback below changes have been made. Increased the maximum number of target audiences you can recommend from three to five.  Admins can add any group as a target audience, including groups belonging to different organizations Why should you use it? Administrators may formerly opt to allow users to link-share files to their entire domain or to someone with the link. Target audiences allow administrators to identify and propose users with more granular link-sharing options. This will lead to: Improve your organization’s security posture by making it harder for information to be shared more broadly than is appropriate. Guide users to share with more specific and appropriate audiences. Save users time by reducing the need to manage sharing reques...

Introducing Google Workspace for Education

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  We’re excited to announce that G Suite for Education is now Google Workspace for Education. We hope that this change will provide you greater choice and flexibility in selecting the best tools to empower your institution. As part of this change, Google Workspace for Education will now be available in four distinct editions instead of just two:  Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals is the new name for G Suite for Education. It will continue to be free to qualifying schools and universities. If you’re currently using this edition, you won't see any changes besides a new name and new features. Learn more.  Google Workspace for Education Standard is a new option that builds on Education Fundamentals to provide institutions with enhanced security. Learn more.  Teaching and Learning Upgrade is a new option that builds on Education Fundamentals or Education Standard to offer advanced video communication capabilities, enriched class experiences in Classroom, and too...

Top 5 trends for API-powered digital transformation in 2021

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  Our “State of the API Economy 2021” report confirms that though digital transformation has been among enterprises’ top business imperatives for years, the COVID-19 pandemic and changing market conditions have increased this urgency. Organizations across the world weathered the pandemic by compressing years of digital transformation into just a few months.  Our research reflects this urgency: in response to the pandemic and its rippling effect on business in 2020, nearly three in four organizations continued their digital transformation investments. Two-thirds of those companies are increasing investments or completely evolving their strategies to become digital-first companies. Digital  transformation relies on an organization’s ability to package its services, competencies, and assets into modular pieces of software that can be repeatedly leveraged. Every company in the world already has valuable data and functionality housed within its systems. Capitalizing on this va...

Human-centric automation with AppSheet

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  A few months after AppSheet was acquired by Google Cloud we announced that we were extending our no-code capabilities to include a new way to empower citizen developers- AppSheet Automation.  While the team is hard at work iterating on this offering, I was recently able to have a conversation with one of the Product Managers leading this effort - Prithpal Bhogill. In the conversation below we discuss what AppSheet Automation is, how it’s used, and when you can start using it.  JC: Let’s get started with the big question - what is AppSheet's automation?  PB: Simply put, automation is the use of technology to eliminate manual steps in typical business processes (eg: Employee On-boarding, Expense Approvals etc) and make your business run more efficiently. Automation is the key enabler of digital transformation.  With AppSheet, automation is an extension of the no-code capabilities that so many organizations have begun to implement as part of their digital transfo...

Email aliases now included in Gmail search results

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  When you search for an email address in Gmail, Google will now show all emails associated with that specific address and any aliases it's part of. These results will be pulled from the to, from, cc, and bcc fields, or anywhere in the email. With this change, searching will be easier and results more comprehensive, as users won’t need to remember all of someone’s aliases and run multiple searches for each. An email alias is an alternate address for receiving mail, used in addition to a user's primary address. There are many reasons why someone may use an alias email address, such as: Official name changes Preferred names Company re-brands Acquisitions and subsidiaries If you’d like to retrieve results for the exact query only, you can enclose it in quotation marks. This will also apply to multiple inbox sections based on search queries which have an email(s). Labels are not affected by this change. Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.  End users: There is ...

Don't fear the authentication: Google Drive edition

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There are times when I’m building an application on GCP when I don’t want to use a more traditional datastore like Cloud SQL or Bigtable. Right now, for example, I’m building an app that allows non-technical folks to easily add icons into a build system. I’m not going to write a front-end from scratch, and teaching them source control, while valuable, isn’t really something I wanted to tackle right now. So an easy solution is to use Google Drive. Maybe you never thought of it as a data store...but let’s talk about it here for a minute. Super simple interface, has rudimentary source control built into it, and it has an API so I can automate pulling the icons from Drive into proper source control and our build system for everyone to consume the icons! Only one problem...and I have a confession to make. I hate OAuth, and on the surface it seems like you need to use OAuth in order to use Google Drive’s API. Okay okay, hate is probably too strong of a word. I don’t hate what it does. I reco...

The time for digital excellence is here—Introducing Apigee X

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  Digital transformation has been a top enterprise priority for years, and in the wake of the global pandemic, that urgency has only increased. Many industries have had to manage in weeks or months what previously would have taken years. According to surveys conducted for our “State of the API Economy 2021” report, three-quarters of enterprises remained focused on digital transformation in 2020, and two-thirds of those companies actually increased their investments.  APIs are the backbone of digital transformation, and to help organizations navigate today’s challenging landscape, we’re announcing Apigee X. A major release of our API management platform, Apigee X seamlessly weaves together Google Cloud’s expertise in AI, security and networking to help enterprises efficiently manage the assets on which digital transformation initiatives are built.  “APIs have become one of the most crucial steps for enterprises to achieve digitalization. APIs are key to adopting modern arc...

Why a leader at Twitter thinks Google Cloud training is a must for IT execs and employees

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  Editor’s note: Today we’re hearing from Kathleen Vignos, Director of Platform Engineering at Twitter. Kathleen shares how Google Cloud training and certifications help Twitter leaders and employees increase business impact, stay up to date with the latest technologies, and grow their careers.  One of Twitter’s core values is having a growth mindset, and as a director in Twitter’s Platform Engineering organization, I believe it’s important for engineering leaders like me to stay up to date on technical training and ensure our teams also have the training they need.  I lead our infrastructure automation group which includes our cloud acceleration team. As part of our hybrid cloud strategy, our cloud acceleration engineers focus on enabling Twitter developers to use cloud services such as Google Cloud. To ensure we promote best practices in the cloud, I helped organize and participated in a 6 day-long Google Cloud training session at Twitter. This training gave us all an o...

App Creators Span The Globe

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  Millions of people use no-code development platforms like Google Cloud's AppSheet to build custom business applications that help improve processes in the workplace. To get a better understanding of no-code app creators, their goals, and their motivations, we recently partnered with TechValidate to collect more than a thousand responses from AppSheet app creators. What we discovered is a diverse set of app creators, with even more diverse goals and motivations, who have all embraced no-code app development as a way to optimize business workflows. Now, let’s take a look at the data. Let's start with technical ability. While 35% report having beginner’s knowledge of traditional coding skills like Java, Python, or C#, 39% reported having no traditional coding knowledge at all. This means that roughly 74% have little to no traditional coding skills when they start using AppSheet. This statistic helps provide insight into the results of next question. We asked app creators why th...