Google Cloud Adds Intel SkyLake And CPU Picker

Cloud Computing

Google is a relatively new entrant into the cloud space and is in the process of aggressive positioning and customer acquisitions. The team has been moving from strength to strength since they entered the market. The latest announcement from the Google Cloud team about Skylake availability on the cloud is in line with this.

The Google Cloud Team says that Skylake Xeons are now generally available and that it is “the first and only public cloud to deliver Intel’s next-generation Xeon server processor”. This makes the available options very attractive for Google Cloud customers. The Google Cloud service is also the only provider that on-boards users free for the first year.

Cloud Computing

The announced Skylake additions are things that traditional server makers were using to lure in customers with an inherent need for speed and to get their hands on more clock cycles. The arrangement with Google looks similar: The Quill understands that Intel cut a custom Xeon for the Alphabet subsidiary to use in the knowledge it would add exponential and very widespread buzz and word-of-mouth for the new Xeon’s many fine qualities. It is worth noting that many enterprises are quite keenly looking for this.

Google’s not sharing a lot of information though. It is saying that Skylake-Xeon-powered instances have clock speed of 2.0 GHz and let you build virtual machines with up to 64 vCPUS and 455 GB of RAM. We still don’t know exactly what’s inside Skylake Xeons, which is no surprise given that Intel’s only recently revealed branding for the CPUs and plans to reveal specifics about their their innards in coming days ahead of their mainstream launch.

For now, our sources tell us that we have Google’s assurance that the CPUs are well-suited to demanding applications, and that they’re nonetheless ready to roll inside its standard instances, as well as the gruntier highmem, highcpu, Custom Machine Types and Preemptible VMs. For now they’re only offered in Google’s Western US, Western Europe and Eastern Asia Pacific regions, but the company says “we have more capacity arriving every day, and support for additional regions and zones coming in the near future.”

Google’s also added a new “Minimum CPU Platform” feature that lets you specify the worst CPU you’re willing to use in its cloud. The company has admitted it has a fleet mixing Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, Haswell, Broadwell silicon. The new feature means if you specify Haswell, you’ll never run on the older Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge. Adding more flexibility and control to the enterprises that choose to be on Google Cloud.

About Shakthi

I am a Tech Blogger, Disability Activist, Keynote Speaker, Startup Mentor and Digital Branding Consultant. Also a McKinsey Executive Panel Member. Also known as @v_shakthi on twitter. Been around Tech for two decades now.

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