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<h3>Google Cloud Platform Technology Nuggets — February 16–29, 2024 Edition</h3><p>Welcome to the February 16–29, 2024 edition of Google Cloud Technology Nuggets.</p><p>Please feel free to give <a href="https://forms.gle/UAsAS7YLxYSBTNBy9">feedback</a> on this issue and share the <a href="https://gcptechnuggets.substack.com/">subscription form</a> with your peers.</p><h3>Google Cloud NEXT ’24</h3><p>Google Cloud NEXT ’24 is just around the corner. The event will be held from April 9–11, 2024 in Las Vegas and there are likely to be some cool announcements. In the meanwhile, check out the entire <a href="https://cloud.withgoogle.com/next/session-library">session catalog.</a></p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*BFf2x6kQg38AI54P.jpg" /></figure><h3>Fifth “epoch” of computing</h3><p>This is an excellent article that you should read that goes through various epochs or transitions in the last 50+ years. Each of these epochs have been transformative and the article argues that we are currently in the fifth epoch of computing, one that is data-centric, declarative, outcome-oriented, software-defined, and centered on proactively bringing insights to people. This epoch is supposed to be the most transformative and brings with it key challenges too. Check out the <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/systems/the-fifth-epoch-of-distributed-computing">article</a>.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/836/0*GUUFXXj1g4vHDHNg.jpg" /></figure><h3>Infrastructure and Modernization of environments</h3><p>If you have been using Compute Engine, you know that you can start and stop the Compute Engine instances. However this feature was not available if you used Managed Instance Groups (MIGs). This has been addressed now with the release of the standby pool feature in MIGs. A standby pool can be configured to contain the target size of the suspended and stopped VMs. This pool can be managed manually or via an automated fashion when the MIGs size is increased. Check out the <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/compute/introducing-managed-instance-groups-standby-pool">article</a> for more details and how you can start using this cost-saving feature today.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*Asnvdm4PULWTtK-p.png" /></figure><p>Mainframes conjure up a very different era of computing. But for its time, organizations who used the technology setup a centralized way of controlling the access, security, operations and setup layers of processes since resources were scarce. With these organizations undergoing a transformation and embarking on a mainframe modernization journey, they have to adopt the ways of the cloud, especially when using a Cloud provider that provides managed services, where security is a shared responsibility, where application errors are only within the realm of the customer to understand and more. Check out this <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/infrastructure-modernization/why-mainframe-migration-is-more-than-technology-transformation">article</a> that highlights why mainframe modernization is not just technology transformation but also of people and processes.</p><p>And continuing on the theme of modernization, its interesting to see how Contact Center Technology completely transformed the IVR systems of old. The earliest adopters of this were the Telecom providers that integrated their systems with the modern Contact Center Software. But with the advent of GenAI, this space is again ripe for a transformation of a different kind. One that will see more intelligent agents that allow a more natural interaction, grounding of the models with the Organizations knowledge base via RAG techniques and more. Check out <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/telecommunications/how-generative-ai-can-be-used-in-the-contact-center">how contact centers are being transformed with Generative AI</a>.</p><h3>API Management</h3><p>Apigee and GKE represent the best of services out there in Google Cloud. But often, you need to connect the API layer to your backend services running on GKE in a secure fashion. For security reasons, you do not want to expose the GKE services publicly plus setting up private and secure connections is an administrative overhead. Enter Private Service Connect (PSC) and GKE Gateway to help address that. Read this <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/api-management/using-private-service-connect-for-apigee-gke-connectivity">article</a> for more details on these services and how to configure a secure and private connection that bridges your API layer to the GKE services.</p><h3>Customers</h3><p>Symphony provides solutions that manage collaborations across worldwide financial institutions and typically this would mean millions of messages across their platform on a daily basis. Their original solution was based on HBase and that turned quickly into a signficant overhead in terms of running the clusters and managing them. This article covers their move to Bigtable, the reasons for choosing it and how they planned the migration. The result is significant cost savings and operational efficiencies at scale. Check out the <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/databases/symphony-connects-financial-markets-with-bigtable">article</a> for more details.</p><h3>Identity and Security</h3><p>Still using Service Account Keys at scale? If yes, security findings continue to report that one of the primary causes of security breaches are related to Service Account Keys. As an organization, you have to step up the game on preventing service account key generation and there are ways to address this in a systematic way with help from specific features in Google Cloud. You can look at Organization policies that prevent Service Account key creation and also detect/alert on instances of Org Policy changes and Service Account key creation. Check out this <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/identity-security/want-your-cloud-to-be-more-secure-stop-using-service-account-keys">article</a> on how to do that.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/720/0*HGg8gQjX7F4ngJgn.png" /></figure><p>Continuing on the topic of preventive measures that need to be taken to avoid issues in the future, the same applies to Vertex AI services. With organizations taking on a more proactive role for using AI services in their applications, you need to have Organization Policies in place to govern the usage of Vertex AI services. Check out this <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/identity-security/introducing-security-command-center-protection-for-vertex-ai">article</a> for more details, that also highlights how Security Command Center Premium can help detect instances of these activities.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*ebgpfl__GIBhwYdO.jpg" /></figure><p>In the <a href="https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/cloud-lateral-movement-techniques">recent blog</a>, Palo Alto Networks highlights several techniques that exploit misconfigurations which could allow a malicious actor to move laterally in cloud environments. The interesting thing about this blog is how bad actors can potentially use tools that are essential for administrating the environments and the machines in them. For e.g. you would think that taking backups, SSH Keys and access to serial console are essential utilities and while that is true, seldom does one think of how bad actors could utilize them to compromise your cloud environment. Check out this <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/identity-security/how-to-prevent-lateral-movement-techniques-on-google-cloud">article</a> that gives 3 key examples with steps on how the attackers would go about compromising the systems and what you can do in Google Cloud to prevent that. Essential read for anyone managing Google Cloud environments.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*zjKIIJAR-swmqldJupQdIw.png" /></figure><p>There are couple of CISO reports in this edition. The <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/identity-security/cloud-ciso-perspectives-guidance-from-our-latest-threat-horizons-report">first report</a> highlights the threats that Google Cloud continues to see and will likely be the trend for 2024. Its interesting to note that one of the biggest threats emerges from the organization’s own security hygiene and misconfigurations. So something that the organizations should pay more attention to.</p><p>The <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/identity-security/cloud-ciso-perspectives-building-better-cyber-defenses-with-ai">second report</a> focuses on the fact that AI will actually play a solid role in strengthening our security posture. The report goes into a session at the recent Munich security conference where this topic was dealt in detail.</p><h3>Machine Learning</h3><p>The biggest news in this edition in the Machine Learning space has been the release of Gemma, a family of lightweight, state-of-the art open models. These models that are based on the same technology as Gemini are available in two sizes: Gemma 2B and Gemma 7B. The key thing with these models is their open nature. Gemma models can run on a laptop, workstation, or on Google Cloud. You can build with and customize in Vertex AI and run it on GKE. Developers can use Gemma with their preferred tools/frameworks that includes Colab and Kaggle notebooks, JAX, PyTorch, Keras 3.0, and Hugging Face Transformers. Check out the <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/ai-machine-learning/gemma-model-available-in-vertex-ai-and-via-gke">article</a> for more details.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*HzZ-XtpXH4iPkQyQ.jpg" /></figure><p>Imagine a scenario where you are watching a video of a famous chef preparing your favourite recipe. As the chef is mentioning the ingredients, they are automatically inserted into a shopping cart that you can then order right away. This is one such scenario that is possible when you combine the interesting world of Video Analytics with Generative AI capabilities. This <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/ai-machine-learning/how-video-analytics-and-generative-ai-will-reshape-industries">article</a> highlights this intersection and mentions interesting use cases with demos. It is sure to spark some ideas.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*kHvhywiqFtX9Rx_d.png" /></figure><h3>Databases</h3><p>Have you been considering moving to Spanner PostgreSQL dialect with the announcement of its General Availability. If specifically you are looking to move from a PostgreSQL environment that you are managing, you should check out this <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/databases/migrate-from-postgresql-to-spanner-with-minimal-downtime">detailed guide</a> that shows not just the benefits of moving to it but a step by step guide to doing that, using the Spanner Migration Tool (SMT) that makes the task smooth.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/977/0*o5sUJJZJypjxW7QV.png" /></figure><h3>Data Analytics</h3><p>Google Cloud with its Data Analytics services can be difficult at times to combine together to form an overall solution. In an interesting Data Analytics solution that is worth studying, Deustche Bank built out a Trade Surveillance system. The system made good use of BigQuery and Dataproc services as shown in the diagram below. What’s interesting to note is how the problem was broken down into how the front office system would provide the relevant data on which the various surveillance scenarios were then run and were identified for investigation. Check out the <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/data-analytics/deutsche-bank-uses-bigquery-and-dataproc-for-trade-surveillance">article</a> for more details.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*RdlySgty6wgACpVj.png" /></figure><h3>Games</h3><p>Is there an area that Generative AI will not touch? Let’s talk about Games, where the <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/gaming/the-case-for-running-ml-in-the-cloud-for-live-service-games">article</a> believes that it has a great potential in the following use cases: Game production, Adaptive gameplay and In-game advertising.</p><p>The <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/gaming/the-case-for-running-ml-in-the-cloud-for-live-service-games">article</a> also dives into <a href="https://github.com/googleforgames/GenAI-quickstart">Generative AI Framework for Games</a>, which provides templates for running Gen AI for games on Google Cloud, as well as a framework for data ingest and storage to support these live models. The article covers a demo of the same.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*ZLOLfkH59wvehtmg.png" /></figure><h3>Networking</h3><p>A new internal range (IP net block for a VPC network) API aims to simplify management of private IP addresses. This API allows for allocate subnets from a free address range within your VPC, reserve and protect this range with a Google Cloud Network and reserve / protect on-premises, or cross-cloud ranges. Check out the <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/networking/introducing-internal-range-api">article</a> with various use cases on where this feature is useful.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*O3wZv0J13mGxxR17KIbhAA.png" /></figure><h3>Developers and Practitioners</h3><p>The last few months has seen Google release several updates to the Vertex AI models, starting with PaLM and then the Gemini models. You might have invoked these models from an API or SDK and even exercised some of the multi-modal features of Gemini. But what if you had a scenario where you are given a list of items (for e.g. countries) and you need to run the same query(prompt) on each of the item. As the <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/application-development/vertex-ai-palm-and-gemini-apis-using-workflows">article</a>, rightly points out, you might end up with the context length issue if you send all the data in one prompt or you might end up sequentially invoking the model on each data. How about being able to do that in parallel and with an approach that can scale. The solution: Use Cloud Workflows as the <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/application-development/vertex-ai-palm-and-gemini-apis-using-workflows">article</a> effectively demonstrates.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*p0lM8aa_gnIF8Ypi.png" /></figure><p>The best way to get started with any technology is to take the services for a spin, integrate the functionality into your applications or build out prototypes of new applications. Customers have identified key Gen AI applications that have an immediate return for them. These include modernizing web sites, improving developer productivity, product cataloging and more. Check out this <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/ai-machine-learning/generative-ai-code-samples-for-vertex-ai">article</a> that highlights each of these key areas and provides ready made repositories of these Gen AI applications that you can put to work together. If you are a Developer in this space and working with Google Cloud, this is a repository to study next.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*ZZht8fawuXxi1Oa9B3CeGw.png" /></figure><h3>Learn Google Cloud</h3><p>Cross-Cloud Network is a solution that addresses the need from organizations to be able to build multi tier apps and network them regardless where ever they are. Key use cases for Cross-Cloud Network solution include distributed applications, content delivery, hybrid workforce solutions and more. Check out the <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/networking/connect-google-cloud-to-on-prem-and-other-clouds">article</a> to learn more about this solution.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*FY5oevzqD6I_YgRQ.jpg" /></figure><h3>Stay in Touch</h3><p>Have questions, comments, or other feedback on this newsletter? Please send <a href="https://forms.gle/UAsAS7YLxYSBTNBy9">Feedback</a>.</p><p>If any of your peers are interested in receiving this newsletter, send them the <a href="https://gcptechnuggets.substack.com/">Subscribe</a> link.</p><p>Want to keep tabs on new Google Cloud product announcements? We have a handy page that you should bookmark → <a href="https://bit.ly/3umz3cA">What’s new with Google Cloud</a>.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=cefbb10d858c" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/google-cloud/google-cloud-platform-technology-nuggets-february-16-29-2024-edition-cefbb10d858c">Google Cloud Platform Technology Nuggets — February 16–29, 2024 Edition</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/google-cloud">Google Cloud - Community</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>

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content: '<h3>Google Cloud Platform Technology Nuggets — February 16–29, 2024 Edition</h3><p>Welcome
  to the February 16–29, 2024 edition of Google Cloud Technology Nuggets.</p><p>Please
  feel free to give <a href="https://forms.gle/UAsAS7YLxYSBTNBy9">feedback</a> on
  this issue and share the <a href="https://gcptechnuggets.substack.com/">subscription
  form</a> with your peers.</p><h3>Google Cloud NEXT ’24</h3><p>Google Cloud NEXT
  ’24 is just around the corner. The event will be held from April 9–11, 2024 in Las
  Vegas and there are likely to be some cool announcements. In the meanwhile, check
  out the entire <a href="https://cloud.withgoogle.com/next/session-library">session catalog.</a></p><figure><img
  alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*BFf2x6kQg38AI54P.jpg" /></figure><h3>Fifth
  “epoch” of computing</h3><p>This is an excellent article that you should read that
  goes through various epochs or transitions in the last 50+ years. Each of these
  epochs have been transformative and the article argues that we are currently in
  the fifth epoch of computing, one that is data-centric, declarative, outcome-oriented,
  software-defined, and centered on proactively bringing insights to people. This
  epoch is supposed to be the most transformative and brings with it key challenges
  too. Check out the <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/systems/the-fifth-epoch-of-distributed-computing">article</a>.</p><figure><img
  alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/836/0*GUUFXXj1g4vHDHNg.jpg" /></figure><h3>Infrastructure
  and Modernization of environments</h3><p>If you have been using Compute Engine,
  you know that you can start and stop the Compute Engine instances. However this
  feature was not available if you used Managed Instance Groups (MIGs). This has been
  addressed now with the release of the standby pool feature in MIGs. A standby pool
  can be configured to contain the target size of the suspended and stopped VMs. This
  pool can be managed manually or via an automated fashion when the MIGs size is increased.
  Check out the <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/compute/introducing-managed-instance-groups-standby-pool">article</a>
  for more details and how you can start using this cost-saving feature today.</p><figure><img
  alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*Asnvdm4PULWTtK-p.png" /></figure><p>Mainframes
  conjure up a very different era of computing. But for its time, organizations who
  used the technology setup a centralized way of controlling the access, security,
  operations and setup layers of processes since resources were scarce. With these
  organizations undergoing a transformation and embarking on a mainframe modernization
  journey, they have to adopt the ways of the cloud, especially when using a Cloud
  provider that provides managed services, where security is a shared responsibility,
  where application errors are only within the realm of the customer to understand
  and more. Check out this <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/infrastructure-modernization/why-mainframe-migration-is-more-than-technology-transformation">article</a>
  that highlights why mainframe modernization is not just technology transformation
  but also of people and processes.</p><p>And continuing on the theme of modernization,
  its interesting to see how Contact Center Technology completely transformed the
  IVR systems of old. The earliest adopters of this were the Telecom providers that
  integrated their systems with the modern Contact Center Software. But with the advent
  of GenAI, this space is again ripe for a transformation of a different kind. One
  that will see more intelligent agents that allow a more natural interaction, grounding
  of the models with the Organizations knowledge base via RAG techniques and more.
  Check out <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/telecommunications/how-generative-ai-can-be-used-in-the-contact-center">how
  contact centers are being transformed with Generative AI</a>.</p><h3>API Management</h3><p>Apigee
  and GKE represent the best of services out there in Google Cloud. But often, you
  need to connect the API layer to your backend services running on GKE in a secure
  fashion. For security reasons, you do not want to expose the GKE services publicly
  plus setting up private and secure connections is an administrative overhead. Enter
  Private Service Connect (PSC) and GKE Gateway to help address that. Read this <a
  href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/api-management/using-private-service-connect-for-apigee-gke-connectivity">article</a>
  for more details on these services and how to configure a secure and private connection
  that bridges your API layer to the GKE services.</p><h3>Customers</h3><p>Symphony
  provides solutions that manage collaborations across worldwide financial institutions
  and typically this would mean millions of messages across their platform on a daily
  basis. Their original solution was based on HBase and that turned quickly into a
  signficant overhead in terms of running the clusters and managing them. This article
  covers their move to Bigtable, the reasons for choosing it and how they planned
  the migration. The result is significant cost savings and operational efficiencies
  at scale. Check out the <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/databases/symphony-connects-financial-markets-with-bigtable">article</a>
  for more details.</p><h3>Identity and Security</h3><p>Still using Service Account
  Keys at scale? If yes, security findings continue to report that one of the primary
  causes of security breaches are related to Service Account Keys. As an organization,
  you have to step up the game on preventing service account key generation and there
  are ways to address this in a systematic way with help from specific features in
  Google Cloud. You can look at Organization policies that prevent Service Account
  key creation and also detect/alert on instances of Org Policy changes and Service
  Account key creation. Check out this <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/identity-security/want-your-cloud-to-be-more-secure-stop-using-service-account-keys">article</a>
  on how to do that.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/720/0*HGg8gQjX7F4ngJgn.png"
  /></figure><p>Continuing on the topic of preventive measures that need to be taken
  to avoid issues in the future, the same applies to Vertex AI services. With organizations
  taking on a more proactive role for using AI services in their applications, you
  need to have Organization Policies in place to govern the usage of Vertex AI services.
  Check out this <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/identity-security/introducing-security-command-center-protection-for-vertex-ai">article</a>
  for more details, that also highlights how Security Command Center Premium can help
  detect instances of these activities.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*ebgpfl__GIBhwYdO.jpg"
  /></figure><p>In the <a href="https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/cloud-lateral-movement-techniques">recent
  blog</a>, Palo Alto Networks highlights several techniques that exploit misconfigurations
  which could allow a malicious actor to move laterally in cloud environments. The
  interesting thing about this blog is how bad actors can potentially use tools that
  are essential for administrating the environments and the machines in them. For
  e.g. you would think that taking backups, SSH Keys and access to serial console
  are essential utilities and while that is true, seldom does one think of how bad
  actors could utilize them to compromise your cloud environment. Check out this <a
  href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/identity-security/how-to-prevent-lateral-movement-techniques-on-google-cloud">article</a>
  that gives 3 key examples with steps on how the attackers would go about compromising
  the systems and what you can do in Google Cloud to prevent that. Essential read
  for anyone managing Google Cloud environments.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*zjKIIJAR-swmqldJupQdIw.png"
  /></figure><p>There are couple of CISO reports in this edition. The <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/identity-security/cloud-ciso-perspectives-guidance-from-our-latest-threat-horizons-report">first
  report</a> highlights the threats that Google Cloud continues to see and will likely
  be the trend for 2024. Its interesting to note that one of the biggest threats emerges
  from the organization’s own security hygiene and misconfigurations. So something
  that the organizations should pay more attention to.</p><p>The <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/identity-security/cloud-ciso-perspectives-building-better-cyber-defenses-with-ai">second
  report</a> focuses on the fact that AI will actually play a solid role in strengthening
  our security posture. The report goes into a session at the recent Munich security
  conference where this topic was dealt in detail.</p><h3>Machine Learning</h3><p>The
  biggest news in this edition in the Machine Learning space has been the release
  of Gemma, a family of lightweight, state-of-the art open models. These models that
  are based on the same technology as Gemini are available in two sizes: Gemma 2B
  and Gemma 7B. The key thing with these models is their open nature. Gemma models
  can run on a laptop, workstation, or on Google Cloud. You can build with and customize
  in Vertex AI and run it on GKE. Developers can use Gemma with their preferred tools/frameworks
  that includes Colab and Kaggle notebooks, JAX, PyTorch, Keras 3.0, and Hugging Face
  Transformers. Check out the <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/ai-machine-learning/gemma-model-available-in-vertex-ai-and-via-gke">article</a>
  for more details.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*HzZ-XtpXH4iPkQyQ.jpg"
  /></figure><p>Imagine a scenario where you are watching a video of a famous chef
  preparing your favourite recipe. As the chef is mentioning the ingredients, they
  are automatically inserted into a shopping cart that you can then order right away.
  This is one such scenario that is possible when you combine the interesting world
  of Video Analytics with Generative AI capabilities. This <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/ai-machine-learning/how-video-analytics-and-generative-ai-will-reshape-industries">article</a>
  highlights this intersection and mentions interesting use cases with demos. It is
  sure to spark some ideas.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*kHvhywiqFtX9Rx_d.png"
  /></figure><h3>Databases</h3><p>Have you been considering moving to Spanner PostgreSQL
  dialect with the announcement of its General Availability. If specifically you are
  looking to move from a PostgreSQL environment that you are managing, you should
  check out this <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/databases/migrate-from-postgresql-to-spanner-with-minimal-downtime">detailed
  guide</a> that shows not just the benefits of moving to it but a step by step guide
  to doing that, using the Spanner Migration Tool (SMT) that makes the task smooth.</p><figure><img
  alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/977/0*o5sUJJZJypjxW7QV.png" /></figure><h3>Data
  Analytics</h3><p>Google Cloud with its Data Analytics services can be difficult
  at times to combine together to form an overall solution. In an interesting Data
  Analytics solution that is worth studying, Deustche Bank built out a Trade Surveillance
  system. The system made good use of BigQuery and Dataproc services as shown in the
  diagram below. What’s interesting to note is how the problem was broken down into
  how the front office system would provide the relevant data on which the various
  surveillance scenarios were then run and were identified for investigation. Check
  out the <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/data-analytics/deutsche-bank-uses-bigquery-and-dataproc-for-trade-surveillance">article</a>
  for more details.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*RdlySgty6wgACpVj.png"
  /></figure><h3>Games</h3><p>Is there an area that Generative AI will not touch?
  Let’s talk about Games, where the <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/gaming/the-case-for-running-ml-in-the-cloud-for-live-service-games">article</a>
  believes that it has a great potential in the following use cases: Game production,
  Adaptive gameplay and In-game advertising.</p><p>The <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/gaming/the-case-for-running-ml-in-the-cloud-for-live-service-games">article</a>
  also dives into <a href="https://github.com/googleforgames/GenAI-quickstart">Generative
  AI Framework for Games</a>, which provides templates for running Gen AI for games
  on Google Cloud, as well as a framework for data ingest and storage to support these
  live models. The article covers a demo of the same.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*ZLOLfkH59wvehtmg.png"
  /></figure><h3>Networking</h3><p>A new internal range (IP net block for a VPC network)
  API aims to simplify management of private IP addresses. This API allows for allocate
  subnets from a free address range within your VPC, reserve and protect this range
  with a Google Cloud Network and reserve / protect on-premises, or cross-cloud ranges.
  Check out the <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/networking/introducing-internal-range-api">article</a>
  with various use cases on where this feature is useful.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*O3wZv0J13mGxxR17KIbhAA.png"
  /></figure><h3>Developers and Practitioners</h3><p>The last few months has seen
  Google release several updates to the Vertex AI models, starting with PaLM and then
  the Gemini models. You might have invoked these models from an API or SDK and even
  exercised some of the multi-modal features of Gemini. But what if you had a scenario
  where you are given a list of items (for e.g. countries) and you need to run the
  same query(prompt) on each of the item. As the <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/application-development/vertex-ai-palm-and-gemini-apis-using-workflows">article</a>,
  rightly points out, you might end up with the context length issue if you send all
  the data in one prompt or you might end up sequentially invoking the model on each
  data. How about being able to do that in parallel and with an approach that can
  scale. The solution: Use Cloud Workflows as the <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/application-development/vertex-ai-palm-and-gemini-apis-using-workflows">article</a>
  effectively demonstrates.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*p0lM8aa_gnIF8Ypi.png"
  /></figure><p>The best way to get started with any technology is to take the services
  for a spin, integrate the functionality into your applications or build out prototypes
  of new applications. Customers have identified key Gen AI applications that have
  an immediate return for them. These include modernizing web sites, improving developer
  productivity, product cataloging and more. Check out this <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/ai-machine-learning/generative-ai-code-samples-for-vertex-ai">article</a>
  that highlights each of these key areas and provides ready made repositories of
  these Gen AI applications that you can put to work together. If you are a Developer
  in this space and working with Google Cloud, this is a repository to study next.</p><figure><img
  alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*ZZht8fawuXxi1Oa9B3CeGw.png"
  /></figure><h3>Learn Google Cloud</h3><p>Cross-Cloud Network is a solution that
  addresses the need from organizations to be able to build multi tier apps and network
  them regardless where ever they are. Key use cases for Cross-Cloud Network solution
  include distributed applications, content delivery, hybrid workforce solutions and
  more. Check out the <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/networking/connect-google-cloud-to-on-prem-and-other-clouds">article</a>
  to learn more about this solution.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*FY5oevzqD6I_YgRQ.jpg"
  /></figure><h3>Stay in Touch</h3><p>Have questions, comments, or other feedback
  on this newsletter? Please send <a href="https://forms.gle/UAsAS7YLxYSBTNBy9">Feedback</a>.</p><p>If
  any of your peers are interested in receiving this newsletter, send them the <a
  href="https://gcptechnuggets.substack.com/">Subscribe</a> link.</p><p>Want to keep
  tabs on new Google Cloud product announcements? We have a handy page that you should
  bookmark → <a href="https://bit.ly/3umz3cA">What’s new with Google Cloud</a>.</p><img
  src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=cefbb10d858c"
  width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/google-cloud/google-cloud-platform-technology-nuggets-february-16-29-2024-edition-cefbb10d858c">Google
  Cloud Platform Technology Nuggets — February 16–29, 2024 Edition</a> was originally
  published in <a href="https://medium.com/google-cloud">Google Cloud - Community</a>
  on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding
  to this story.</p>'

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