Google to set up new cloud region in India by 2017

Google announced on Friday that it plans to open a new Google Cloud Region in Mumbai. It will be expected to be live in 2017 and will be aimed at providing Google Cloud Platform services to Indian developers and enterprise customers.

Google cloud has more than one billion end users it also gains significant traction in India. Companies gaining from Google Cloud Platform include Snap Inc (formerly SnapChat), Niantic Labs (Pokemon Go), Telus International, and Evernote.

“In India too, we have seen great customer momentum with thousands of customers including major brands like Wipro, Ashok Leyland, Smartshift by Mahindra & Mahindra, Dainik Bhaskar Group and INshorts.com building on Google Cloud Platform,” it said.

The move is expected to help the American company catch up with bigger rivals Microsoft and Amazon Web Services in the cloud marketplace in the country.

Setting up of a local data centre within India will also help the company cater to a larger number of customers, especially in government or financial services sectors that often have regulations that do not permit data to be transmitted outside the country.

Brian Stevens, Vice President of Google Cloud said that by expanding to new regions, Google will be able to deliver better performance to customers.

“In fact, our recent expansion in Oregon resulted in up to 80 per cent improvement in latency for customers. We look forward to welcoming customers to our new Cloud Regions as they become publicly available throughout 2017,” he added.

The company has announced locations of seven new Google Cloud Regions—Singapore, Sydney, Northern Virginia, Sao Paulo, London, Finland and Frankfurt—that will come online through 2017, like the one in Mumbai. 

Google has also rebranded its ‘Google Apps for Work’ as ‘G Suite’ that will comprise apps like Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar, Hangouts, and others that are designed for workplaces.

(With inputs from PTI)