The company, which is part of Alphabet Inc., announced that it will expand its Cloud services to five new regions and build three new submarine cables to serve capacity needs.
Google 's Cloud platform already operates in thirteen locations, including Tokyo, Taiwan, Mumbai, Singapore, Sydney, London, Belgium, Frankfurt, Sao Paulo, Oregon, Iowa, Northern Virginia, and South Carolina. The company estimates that its network currently accounts for 25% of all Internet traffic.
The platform will expand to Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Montreal, the Netherlands, and Finland, meaning companies in these regions that leverage Google Cloud Platform for their server capacity will experience higher performance and fewer service interruptions.
Those who live in these areas, according to Google, will be thrilled.
“Overall, these investments mean faster and more reliable connectivity for all users and customers,” a Google spokesperson said. The new regions will “give customers high levels of performance, highly available local computing, deployment flexibility, and scalability for their applications and data.”.
Google is also building or participating in the construction of three undersea cables, which will be operational in 2019. Customers in the areas connected by these cables will experience faster and better Google Cloud Platform and G Suite services as a result of increased network capacity and connectivity.
They join eight additional cables in which Google has direct investments, as well as several others in which the company leases capacity. Google is also investing in Indigo, which connects Australia, Indonesia, and Singapore, and PLCN, which connects Hong Kong and Los Angeles, both of which are due to go into service in 2019.
“Overall, these investments mean faster and more reliable connectivity for all our users and customers,” the company says. “The undersea cables increase capacity in these areas.”
The Curie cable will connect California to Chile. Of the three cables, Curie is the only one privately owned by Google. Google will become the first major non-telecom company to build a private transcontinental cable.
As the sole owner, Google will have full control over the design and construction of Curie. “Once it’s deployed, we can make decisions that optimize traffic and availability,” the company said.
Google is also working with Facebook, undersea network construction company Aqua Comms and industrial group Bulk Infrastructure on the Havfrue cable, which will connect the US east coast to Denmark and Ireland.
The group has tapped subsea communications systems supplier TE Connectivity to build the cable. TE has already begun to specify the dynamic path of the cable.
Google is also working with telecommunications infrastructure company RTI Connectivity and IT manufacturer NEC Corporation on the HK-G cable, which connects Hong Kong and Guam. The cable will deliver what NEC calls a “much-needed expansion of communications networks between Asia and the United States.”
