Google Adds Premiere Services to Cloud Offerings

  • By Mike Hohenbrink
  • 10/12/11

Google has unveiled several enhancements to its cloud services, including premiere support for its app engine and database, storage, and machine learning offerings.

With the company reporting more than "200,000 developers" already having used its services to create apps, the newest offerings are designed to allow more users to do likewise in a cloud environment.

Among the new offerings is Google App Engine Premier Accounts, a premium package available at $500 per month.

Key features of this product include:

  • Premiere support for users;
  • A 99.95 percent uptime service level agreement; and
  • Freedom to create an unlimited number of apps.

A free database service is also available with the recently released Google Cloud SQL, which utilizes relational database technology to match data by means of common characteristics in a data set. Among uses, student records, and grades can be grouped more easily around desired criteria, as can other data.

Free for now, the product is expected to see upgrades in the future.

"It will continue to evolve as we work out the kinks during the preview," announced Jessie Jiang, group product manager, in a blog post this week.

Online storage will be made easier with Google Cloud Storage, an update to the company's previous cloud storage option. Pricing has been modified to provide volume discounts and to eliminate charges for ingress.

Features available include:

  • An online archive and storage;
  • The ability to access static media such as pictures and video;
  • Data sharing; and
  • Compatibility with other Google services such as its App Engine, Prediction API and Big Query.

Google has also rolled out the newest version of its machine learning offering with the release of Prediction API 1.4. The software, which went into general availability earlier this year, is designed to make apps "smarter" by allowing them to "identify patterns, recommend appropriate actions and automate repetitive tasks," according to the company. New features of the latest release include PMML 4.01 support and data anomaly detection.

More information on Google Cloud Services is available on Google's cloud portal.

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