Data Backup Digest

Google is often in the news across North America, but lately they’ve been making headlines around the world. Currently in the midst of a large expansion into international territories, they’ve recently opened their first data center in the city of London. While this news is enough to draw the attention of techies from all around the world, it’s not the only step they’re taking to solidify their presence in Europe and around the globe.

Moving Into Europe and Beyond

Their newest data center might be the first in the city of London, but it’s officially their second site in all of Europe. Google’s first, which began operations in 2010, is located in Brussels. In addition, the team with Google has already announced plans for several more data centers in the coming years.

In fact, their Brussels facility was the target of a recent expansion of its own. Taking place in 2013, the $390 million (300 million euro) project improved the center’s infrastructure and its ability to accommodate an ever-growing customer base.

A recent blog post, written by Google’s Cloud Platform product manager, Dave Stiver, stated: “Incredible user experiences hinge of performant infrastructure. GCP customers throughout the British Isles and Western Europe will see significant reductions in latency when they run their workloads in the London region.”

While we know for certain that Google is planning more expansions in the near future, they’ve remained relatively tight-lipped on the details surrounding possible locations or timelines. However, given the growing number of consumers who are now embracing the Internet, these new buildings can’t come soon enough.

Taking Aim at Multiple Goals

The reason for the move is twofold. Not only does Google want to provide better, localized services for their European customer base, but they’re also stepping up efforts to achieve compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation, which begins on May 25, 2018.

Google also issued a statement, via separate blog post, responding to the GDPR. It states, in part: ''“Our users can count on the fact that Google is committed to GDPR compliance across G Suite and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services when the GDPR takes effect on May 25, 2018. We'll make important updates to contractual commitments that directly address GDPR requirements. We're also a committed partner in customers’ GDPR compliance efforts. Users can leverage Google Cloud services with confidence understanding the robust data protection capabilities built-in to Google Cloud.”''

Their services include data processing and exportation, third-party auditing and certification and detailed incident notifications. All of these solutions are aimed at building stronger data safeguards and protecting sensitive data on behalf of Google’s customers.

A Worldwide Presence

Google now boasts a total of 30 different coverage zones across 10 regions and four continents. This puts them in third place in the race for cloud service domination, behind only Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS), but moves like this are sure to make Google a competitive force for years to come.