Cloud

For far too long, cloud infrastructure has focused on raw speeds and feeds of building blocks such as VMs, containers, networks, and storage. Today, Moore’s law is slowing, and the burden of picking the right combination of infrastructure components increasingly falls on IT. 

At Google Cloud we are committed to removing that burden. We’ve engineered golden paths from silicon to the console, with a recipe of purpose-built infrastructure, prescriptive architectures, and an ecosystem to deliver workload-optimized infrastructure. And at this year’s Google Cloud Next, we made some exciting new announcements across key workloads.

In this post, we will put the new Google Cloud releases and capabilities in the context of popular workloads: From AI/ML to high performance computing and data analytics, to SAP, VMware, and mainframes.  

Powering AI/ML workloads 

No single technology has the potential to drive more transformation than AI and ML. At Next, we announced several new AI-based services: Translation Hub and DocAI services, and the OpenXLA Project, an open-source ecosystem of ML compiler technologies co-developed by a consortium of industry leaders.

To build these innovative services, you also need a powerful infrastructure platform. Today, we announced the following additions to our compute offerings:

Cloud TPU v4 Pods – Now in General Availability (GA), Google’s advanced machine learning infrastructure is based on the world’s largest publicly available ML hub in Oklahoma and offers up to 9 exaflops of peak aggregate compute. Developers and researchers can use TPU v4 to train increasingly sophisticated models to power workloads such as large-scale natural language processing (NLP), recommendation systems, and computer vision algorithms in a cost effective and sustainable way. In June 2022, Cloud TPU v4 recorded the fastest training times on five MLPerf 2.0 benchmarks, with up to 80% better performance and up to 50% lower cost of training than the next best available alternative. 

A2 Ultra GPU VM instances – Now in limited GA, you can use A2 Ultra GPU VM instances with Compute Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine, Deep Learning VMs and Vertex AI user-managed notebooks. A2 Ultra GPUs have the largest and fastest GPU memory of the Google Cloud portfolio and are optimized for large AI/ML and HPC workloads with use cases such as AI assistants, recommendation systems, and autonomous driving. Powered by NVIDIA A100 Tensorcore GPU with 80 GBs of GPU memory, A2 Ultra delivers 25% higher throughput on inference and 2x higher performance on HPC simulations than original A2 machine shapes. 

Learn more about A2 Ultra and hear how you can accelerate your ML development and learn from our customers Uber and Cohere in breakout session MOD300.

Boost HPC and data-intensive workloads

Customers rely on Google Cloud to help them run data-intensive workloads such as HPC and Hadoop. The new C3 machine series (currently in Preview) is the first in the public cloud to include the new 4th Gen Intel Xeon processor and Google’s custom Intel Infrastructure Processing Unit that enables 200Gbps, low-latency networking. Learn more about top HPC best practices in breakout session MOD106.

You can pair the C3 with Hyperdisk (currently in Private Preview), our new generation block storage, which offers 80% higher IOPS per vCPU for high-end database management system (DBMS) workloads when compared to other hyperscalers. Data workloads such as Hadoop and databases may no longer need oversized compute instances to benefit from high IOPS. Learn more about Hyperdisk in breakout session MOD206. 

Enable new streaming experiences

Media and entertainment customers want streaming optimized workloads that build on our innovation in edge and our global network. Here are some new developments to support streaming use cases:

Cloud CDN, our original content delivery networking offering, now offers Dynamic compression to reduce the size of responses transferred from the edge to a client, significantly helping to accelerate page load times and reduce egress traffic. 

Media CDN, introduced earlier this year, now supports the Live Stream API to ingest and package source content into HTTP-Live Streaming and DASH formats for optimized live streaming. We are also enabling two new developer-friendly integrations in Preview for Media CDN: Dynamic Ad Insertion with Google Ad Manager, which provides customized video ad placements, and third-party Ad Insertion using our Video Stitcher API for personalized ad placement. With these options, content producers can introduce additional monetization and personalization opportunities to their streaming services. 

For advanced customization, we are introducing the Preview of Network Actions for Media CDN, a fully managed serverless solution based on open-source web assembly that enables programmability for customers to deploy their own code directly in the request/response path at the edge. 

With Media CDN, customers like Paramount+ are able to deliver a high-quality experience on the same Google infrastructure we’ve tested and tuned to serve YouTube’s 2 billion users globally. 

“Streaming is one of the key growth areas for Paramount Global. When we migrated traffic onto Media CDN, we observed consistently superior performance and offload metrics. Partnering with Google Cloud enables us to provide our subscribers with the highest quality viewing experience.” — Chris Xiques, SVP of Video Technology Group, Paramount Global

Bringing Google Cloud to your workloads 

For customers in regulated markets and in countries with strict sovereignty laws, Google Cloud has a spectrum of offerings to help them achieve varying degrees of sovereignty. Sovereign Controls by T-Systems is now GA, and Local Controls by S3NS, the Thales-Google partnership, is now available in Preview. You can expect more region and market announcements in the coming months. And for the most stringent sovereignty needs, we offer Google Distributed Cloud Hosted for a disconnected Google Cloud footprint deployed at the customer’s chosen site. 

We are also expanding functionality for existing offerings to give you even more options to run your cloud where you want, how you want. 

Anthos, our cloud-centric container platform to run modern apps anywhere consistently at scale, now has a more robust user interface and an upgraded fleet management experience. Create, update, and reconfigure your Anthos clusters the same way from one dashboard or command-line interface, wherever your clusters run. New fleet management capabilities let you manage growing fleets of container clusters across clouds, on-premises, and at the edge and for different use cases (isolate dev from prod, apply fleet-specific security controls, enforce configurations fleet-wide). And we are pleased to announce the GA of virtual machine support on Anthos clusters for retail edge environments. Learn more about how Anthos can help you run modern applications anywhere in breakout session MOD208.

Google Distributed Cloud Edge GPU-Optimized Config, is now GA in server-rack form factors powered by 12 Nvidia T4 GPUs. GDC Edge is designed to enable low-latency and high-performance hybrid workloads as a complement to your primary Google Cloud environment or as an independent edge deployment. We’re seeing early adoption by customers and partners for workloads such as augmented reality and retail self-checkout. In addition, software partners such as 66degrees are taking advantage of GDC Edge GPU optimization to provide real-time insights on in-store product availability, while Ipsotek is using machine intelligence at the edge to perform crowd and foot-traffic analysis in large locations such as malls, airports and railway stations. Learn more about GDC Edge and new partner validated solutions here, or watch breakout session MOD207 to hear how you can modernize your data center and accelerate your edge.

Infrastructure building blocks for cloud-first workloads

For most new projects, developers prefer them to be cloud-first optimized workloads, and nearly half of all developers use containers today. Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is the most automated and scalable container management service on the market today, and when you use GKE Autopilot, developers can get started faster than other leading cloud providers. At Next ‘22, we’re excited to unveil:

A new workshop to help you discover how to unlock efficiency and innovation with a GKE Autopilot — sign up to get started. 

A new security posture management dashboard in GKE that provides opinionated guidance on Kubernetes security along with bundled tools to expertly help improve the security posture of your Kubernetes clusters and workloads.

When building scalable web applications or running background jobs that require lightweight batch processing, developers are increasingly turning to serverless technologies. We’re helping developers choose serverless with numerous updates to Cloud Run, our managed serverless compute service. 

With new Cloud Run integrations, Cloud Run and Google Cloud services work together smoothly. For example, configuring domains with a Load Balancer or connecting to a Redis Cache is now as easy as a single click, with more scenarios on the way.

Cloud Run customized health checks for services is now available in Preview, providing user-defined HTTP and TCP Startup probes at the container level. This capability allows Cloud Run users to define criteria as to when their application has started and is ready to start serving traffic, and is particularly useful for applications that might require additional startup time on their first initialization. 

To make continuous deployment easier for our customers, we added an integration between Cloud Deploy, our fully managed continuous deployment service, and Cloud Run. With this integration in place, you can do continuous deployment through Cloud Deploy directly to Cloud Run, with one-click approvals and rollbacks, enterprise security and audit, and built-in delivery metrics. Learn more on Cloud Deploy web page.

Learn more about how to build next-level web applications with Cloud Run in breakout session BLD203.

You also need confidence in the building blocks that make up your workloads from the outset. To help get you started, we introduced Software Delivery Shield, which provides a comprehensive suite of tools offering a fully managed, end-to-end solution that helps protect your software supply chain. The Software Delivery Shield launch also included the following announcements: 

Cloud Workstations, currently in Preview, provides fully-managed development environments built to meet the needs of security-sensitive enterprises. With Cloud Workstations, developers can access secure, fast, and customizable development environments via a browser anytime and anywhere, with consistent configurations and customizable tooling. To learn more about Cloud Workstations, please visit the web page and check out breakout session BLD100.

A new partnership with JetBrains provides fully managed Jetbrains IDEs as part of Cloud Workstations. This integration can give developers access to several popular IDEs with minimal management overhead for their admin teams.

Read more about Software Delivery Shield. 

Open source and open standards are an important part of building applications. With that, we are excited to announce that Google has joined the Eclipse Adoptium Working Group, a consortium of leaders in the Java community working to establish a higher quality, developer-centric standard for Java distributions. Also, we are making Eclipse Temurin available across Google Cloud products and services. Eclipse Temurin provides Java developers a higher quality developer experience and more opportunities to create integrated, enterprise-focused solutions, with the openness they deserve.

Pioneering new technology with Web3 optimized infrastructure

It’s incredible to see the energy in Web3 right now and the focus on developing the broader benefits, use cases, and core capabilities of blockchain. We are helping customers with scalability, reliability, security, and data, so they can spend the bulk of their time on innovation in the Web3 space — unlocking deep user value and building the next app to attract a billion users to the ecosystem.

Companies like Near, Nansen, Solana, Blockdaemon, Dapper Labs & Sky Mavis use Google Cloud’s infrastructure. Yesterday, we announced a strategic partnership with Coinbase to better serve the growing Web3 ecosystem. 

“We could not ask for a better partner to execute our vision of building a trusted bridge into the Web3 economy and accelerating broader growth and adoption of blockchain technology. I started Coinbase with a desire to create a more accessible financial system for everyone, and Google’s history of supporting open source and decentralized ecosystems made this a natural fit. Our partnership marks a major inflection point and, together, we are removing barriers to blockchain adoption and accelerating innovation.” — Brian Armstrong, CEO, Coinbase

Lift and transform traditional workloads

Not all workloads were born in the cloud — or have completed their journey to it. Google Cloud offers a variety of programs and capabilities to help optimize traditional workloads for a new cloud era, regardless of whether you’re looking to migrate it as-is, do light optimizations, or fully modernize and transform: 

Migration Center – Now in Preview. For organizations looking to migrate to the cloud and transform their businesses, Migration Center can reduce the complexity, time, and cost by providing an integrated migration and modernization experience. It brings together our assessment, planning, migration, and modernization tooling in one centralized location with a shared data platform so you can proceed faster, more intelligently, and more easily through your journey. Learn more at the Migration Center webpage.

Google Cloud VMware Engine – Google Cloud is the first VMware partner to market with VMware Cloud Universal support, simplifying the migration of on-premises VMware VMs to VMware Engine in the cloud. With a cloud market-leading 99.99% availability SLA in a single site, VMware Engine is helping large organizations like Carrefour move to Google Cloud. 

Dual Run for Google Cloud – Now in Preview, this first-of-its-kind solution helps eliminate many of the common risks associated with mainframe modernizations by letting customers simultaneously run workloads on their existing mainframes and their modernized version on Google Cloud.  This means customers can perform real-time testing and quickly gather data on performance and stability with no disruption to their business. Once satisfied that the performance of the two systems is functionally equivalent, the customer can make the Google Cloud environment the system of record, and operate the existing mainframe system as needed, typically as a backup. Learn more about Dual Run in this press release or on our Mainframe Modernization webpage.

Google Cloud Workload Manager – Now in Preview for SAP workloads, and available in the Google Cloud console, Workload Manager provides automated analysis of your enterprise systems on Google Cloud to help continuously improve system quality, reliability, and performance. Google Cloud Workload Manager evaluates your SAP workloads by detecting deviations from documented standards and best practices to help proactively prevent issues, continuously analyze workloads, and simplify system troubleshooting. 

Learn more about how organizations like Global Payments and Loblaw Technology have migrated with ease and speed in breakout session MOD104.

Protect all your workloads 

The foundation of any workload is storage, and this year we expanded the number of supported regions with our Cloud Storage dual-region buckets (GA), so you can ensure that your workloads are protected. In the event of an outage, your application can easily access the data in the alternate region. You can add Turbo replication (GA) with your dual-region buckets. Turbo replication is backed by a 15-minute Recovery Point Objective (RPO) SLA. 

Also, we recently announced Google Cloud’s Backup and DR Service (GA). This service is a fully integrated data-protection solution for critical applications and databases that lets you centrally manage data protection and disaster recovery policies directly within the Google Cloud console, and fully protect databases and applications with a few mouse clicks. 

Learn more about Storage best practices in breakout session MOD206. 

Migrate, observe, and secure network traffic

We also announced many new capabilities and enhancements to the Cloud Networking portfolio that help customers migrate, modernize, secure, and observe workloads traveling to and in Google Cloud:

Private Service Connect helps simplify migrations by giving more control to users and integrations with 5 new partners. 

Network Intelligence Center can monitor the network for you with enhanced capabilities like the Performance Dashboard that will give you latency visibility between Google Cloud and the Internet. 

We expanded our Cloud Firewall product line and introduced two new tiers: Cloud Firewall Essentials and Cloud Firewall Standard. 

For more information on what’s new with networking, read this blog and check out breakout session MOD205.

Optimize costs

Our customers’ workloads also require technical and commercial options that can deliver the best return on their investments. Here are some new enhancements that can help:

Flex CUDs – GA on October 21, 2022, Flexible Committed Use Discounts help you save up to 46% off on-demand Compute Engine VM pricing, in exchange for a one- or three-year commitment. Like standard CUDs, you can apply Flex CUDs across projects within the same billing account, to VMs of different sizes, and across operating systems. Learn more.

Batch – Now GA, Batch is a fully managed service that helps you run batch jobs easily, reliably, and at scale. Without having to install any additional software, Batch dynamically and efficiently manages resource provisioning, scheduling, queuing, and execution, freeing you up to focus on analyzing results. There’s no charge for using Batch, and you only pay for the resources used to complete the tasks. 

Learn more about how you can optimize for cost savings with Google Cloud in MOD103. 

Optimize for sustainability

Any new workloads you develop should have the smallest possible carbon footprint. Google Cloud Carbon Footprint helps you measure, report, and reduce your cloud carbon emissions, and is now GA. Since introducing Carbon Footprint last year, we added features that cover Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, and provided role-based access to other users such as sustainability teams. Active Assist’s carbon emissions estimates related to removing unattended projects are also now GA. Learn how to build a more sustainable cloud with lower carbon emissions in MOD103, and start using Carbon Footprint today.

“At Box, we’re focused on reducing our carbon footprint and we’re excited for the visibility and transparency the Carbon Footprint tool will provide as we continue our work to operate sustainably.” — Corrie Conrad, VP Communities and Impact and Executive Director of Box.org at Box

“At SAP we’re working to achieve net-zero by 2030, making it crucial to measure carbon emissions all along our value chain. Collaborating with Google Cloud on Carbon Footprint ensures that accurate emissions data is available in a timely manner, helping our many Solution Areas make more sustainable decisions.” — Thomas Lee, SVP and Head of Multicloud Products and Services at SAP

Designed around your workloads

These are only a few examples of the many golden paths we are enabling for your workloads. We strive to be the ‘open infrastructure cloud’ that is the most intuitive to consume because everything is designed around your workloads, providing tremendous TCO benefits. 

To get even more information on all of this and more check out the Modernize breakout session track and these “What’s New” sessions available on demand at Next ’22: 

MOD105 to learn about new infrastructure solutions for enterprise architects and developers.

BLD106 to learn what’s new to help developers build, deploy, and run applications.

OPE100 to learn about the biggest announcements for DevOps teams, sysadmins, and operators.

Organizations large and small are realizing that digital transformation and the changing threat landscape require a grounds up effort to transform security. At Google Cloud, we continue to invest in our vision of invisible security where advanced capabilities are engineered into our platforms, operations are simplified, and stronger security outcomes can be achieved. 

We made five major security announcements yesterday at Google Cloud Next: 

Introducing Chronicle Security Operations, to help detect, investigate, and respond to cyberthreats with the speed, scale, and intelligence of Google

Introducing Confidential Space, to help unlock the value of secure data collaboration

Advancing digital sovereignty on Europe’s terms, to address growing demand for cloud solutions with high levels of control, transparency, and sovereignty

Introducing Software Delivery Shield, to help improve software supply chain security 

New and expanded Google Cloud partnerships with leaders across the security ecosystem  

Today at Next ‘22, we’re introducing additional new security products, partnerships, and solutions across security analytics, anti-fraud measures, device security, Zero Trust, and open source software security to help our customers around the world address their most pressing security challenges.

Our Assured Open Source Software service, which we announced earlier this year, is now available in Preview. Assured OSS enables enterprise and public sector users of open source software to easily incorporate the same trusted OSS packages that Google uses into their own developer workflows. You can sign up for the Preview of Assured OSS here.

Security teams must continually measure and manage risk in their cloud environments. Earlier this year we acquired Foreseeti, a startup focused on attack simulation and risk quantification. We’re excited to announce that the integration of Foreseeti’s groundbreaking technology, which can help teams understand their exposure and prioritize contextualized vulnerability findings, will be coming to Security Command Center in Preview in Q4. Security Command Center will use Forseeti’s advanced attack path simulations to help you apply targeted remediations before attackers can take advantage of high-risk vulnerabilities.

To help organizations better manage risks in their online channels, reCAPTCHA Enterprise and Signifyd will partner to bring to market a joint anti-fraud and abuse solution. This solution will combine the behavioral analysis capabilities of reCAPTCHA Enterprise with the anti-fraud capabilities of Signifyd to help enterprises reduce abuse, account takeovers, and payment fraud. 

We continue to invest in new initiatives with our BeyondCorp Alliance partners. Palo Alto Networks customers can now pair Prisma Access with BeyondCorp Enterprise Essentials to help secure private and SaaS app access while mitigating internet threats across managed and unmanaged devices with a secure enterprise browsing experience. 

We now package best practices and implementation experience for our customers in Zero Trust Advisory solutions. Our Cybersecurity Action Team and select partners can help guide you through the Zero Trust journey with exploratory workshops, architecture reviews, customized recommendations, and implementation support. 

Google Cloud Armor, which was instrumental in stopping the largest Layer 7 DDoS attack to date, was named a Strong Performer in The Forrester Wave™: Web Application Firewalls, Q3 2022. This is our debut in the WAF Wave, and it’s encouraging to see the recognition for the product in this market segment.

Google Workspace has received several security updates and advances. They bring data loss prevention (DLP) to Google Chat to help prevent sensitive information leaks, new Trust rules for Google Drive for more granular control of internal and external sharing, and Client-side encryption (CSE) in Gmail and Google Calendar to help address a broad range of data sovereignty and compliance requirements. You can learn more in our Workspace blog.

Learn more at Google Cloud Next

Our growing team at Google Cloud Security remains focused on delivering solutions that can make governments and enterprises safer with Google, in our trusted cloud and through products that bring our security capabilities to on-premises environments and other clouds. Learn more about these announcements and capabilities by attending the Security sessions at Google Cloud Next all this week and on-demand soon after.

In the past few years, the airline industry hasannounced its commitment to achieving net-zero carbon emissions in the next 30 years. Meeting this target will largely depend on the industry’s ability to access sustainable fuel, acquire the latest carbon-friendly aircraft technology, and develop optimization strategies for efficient operations in the air and on the ground. Adding to the complexity are the daily challenges the industry faces, such as unpredictable resource availability, volatile weather conditions, and economic instability while trying to meet passenger expectations.

The Lufthansa Group recognized that this increasingly complex environment required a new approach to data management. The airline partnered with Google Cloud to develop a platform that facilitates better planning and steering of the airline’s daily flight operations. The efficiencies gained through the deployment of Google Cloud have led to measurable CO2 reductions through more efficient aircraft deployment. AI-enabled scenario planning and increased visibility into weather patterns, routing options, aircraft fuel-efficiency, and aircraft usage have played a significant role in the airline’s success.

Missed connections: The need for centralized data access grows 

Sustainability is a growing priority to the day-to-day operations at Lufthansa Group. The airline works with Google Cloud to run an Operations Decision Support Suite (OPSD). OPSD is a cloud-based operational planning tool integrating data from the core systems running aircraft rotation, passenger management, crew management, and technical fleet management. It was initially introduced to the Lufthansa Group subsidiary Swiss International Air Lines and is now to be rolled out across the entire Group.  

Taking advantage of GoogleBigQuery andVertex AI for analytics and modeling, OPSD derives predictive intelligence from the data, suggesting scenarios for the airlines’ operations control center team so they can make optimal decisions at any given time and help the company make headway on its sustainability goals, including carbon emissions targets.

“Since our collaboration with Google Cloud, we have elevated our passenger experience by improving our hub steering and avoiding missed connections,” explains Christian Most, project lead for the Lufthansa Group’s OPSD. “By this, we have an impact also on our sustainability by increasing the efficiency of our operations. [This] is a technology where you can align multiple target functions into one and weigh these different input factors based on the situation, and then get the best solution.”

Lufthansa Group considered several technology partners for the optimization project but selected Google Cloud because the OPSD team needed a solution that could work across its many operating units. Google Cloud offered to come on board as a strategic partner rather than just a service provider to ensure Lufthansa Group builds a platform that can meet these cross-functional needs, according to Most.

Smart aircraft assignments lead to less fuel burn

Lufthansa Group works with and deploys tools that accelerate its ambitious carbon-reduction targets. Google Cloud was already well established in this space, having launched asustainability partnership program in October 2021 to develop new technologies that can deliver the massive datasets and cloud-native solutions customers need to accelerate their sustainability initiatives.

In February 2021, the OPSD and Google Cloud team began working on several pilot projects after a yearlong delay due to the pandemic. They identified flight rotation management as one of the key areas of focus to improve fuel efficiency.

Flight rotation involves choosing aircraft that will increase efficiencies for a particular flight based on a variety of factors, including the aircraft’s passenger capacity, weight, maintenance schedules, and fuel burn. The amount of fuel consumed during flight varies from plane to plane, depending mainly on the trajectory of the aircraft and the type of engine. This is why it’s important to have clear visibility into aircraft availability, because the differences in fuel efficiency between similar aircraft can range up to 10%. Cleaning and maintenance schedules are also important considerations. The cleanliness of an aircraft can make an additional difference of 1% when it comes to fuel efficiency. Also, some flight systems might be calibrated differently than others, which can lead to more drag — the amount of resistance an aircraft encounters in flight.

The OPSD collates data about aircraft maintenance, passenger booking data, routes, and cargo data so the team can allocate the most efficient aircraft for each flight, which helps the company reduce its absolute emissions.

For example, an Airbus A321neo, which stands for “new engine option,” would be 15% to 20% more efficient than a standard Airbus A321 on a four-hour trip to the Canary Islands. How does the team know this? The scenario-planning capabilities enabled by Google Cloud help controllers determine which aircraft is ideal for a particular route, considering all available live data. The efficiencies gained from these decisions, even in small numbers, add up to significant savings.

“When we uncover an opportunity to improve sustainability, this is where the magic happens,” says Most. “If you have multiple factors to weigh against, you will see at the end a benefit for operations, for the customer, and for your costs. Improving sustainability always comes with many advantages for other factors.”

Vertex AI delivers more accurate weather reports 

Most of us know firsthand the impact that weather can have on travel, whether we’ve been stuck at an airport after a canceled flight or missed a connection due to weather-related delays. Lufthansa Group and its frontrunner SWISS are trying to improve the traveler experience in the most efficient way possible by using data and Vertex AI to predict individual connecting timesand to plan more effectively for inclement weather.

For example, the company is able to integrate historical data from weather agencies across Switzerland to predict the duration of a phenomenon called Bise. Bise is a cold north-easterly wind that blows through the Swiss Mittelland. In Zurich, a strong Bise can cause flight delays and cancellations because air traffic control has to reduce the arrival capacity by up to 30%. Furthermore and to make things worse, the departure capacity is also heavily reduced as the flight paths of arriving and departing aircraft intersect. Using Vertex AI, SWISS can model scenarios based on the weather data to gain a more accurate view of delays and plan accordingly.

“Now we can predict how long the Bise will last, how strong the winds are, the capacity limitations we expect for this timeframe, and thus be able to accurately predict the impact on our flight operations, which we didn’t have in the past,” Most said.

In the event of a cancellation, the system also provides a range of efficient rebooking options via relevant hubs throughout the Lufthansa Group and it’s partners . Looking ahead, the company plans to extend the capabilities of Google Cloud to other stakeholders, including airports, air traffic controllers and other providers, to drive additional efficiencies.

“It’s called the industrial cloud, where we all work together and share information in order to optimize our system jointly rather than optimizing yourself, which can lead to bottlenecks in the system,” Most explained. “That’s the ultimate vision we are pursuing.”

The sustainability journey continues

Within 18 months of working with Google Cloud on these initiatives, SWISS has already:

Cut Co2 emissions by an estimated 7,400 tons per year — the equivalent of 18 Boeing 777 roundtrip flights between Zurich and New York City or 370 rotations between London and Zurich.

Optimized at least half the flights in the SWISS network.

Saved 5.2 million Swiss francs this year, streamlining its four key operational domains — aircraft rotation, passenger management, crew management, and technical fleet management.

Increased agility and flexibility to respond to unexpected events via scenario-planning capabilities.

These achievements have been so significant, in fact, that Lufthansa Group recently wasrecognized with a Google Cloud Sustainability Customer Award. And because of the strength of the continued collaboration, SWISS and the Lufthansa Group are able to explore new possibilities for even more sustainability progress. “It’s very easy to work with Google Cloud; it’s very honest,” says Most. “They have so many ideas about what else we could do with the technology, so it’s a lot of fun.”