This article is based on reporting originally published by SiliconAngle, drawing on interviews conducted during the Google Cloud Next OnAir event.
Google’s Infrastructure-First Product Strategy
Google LLC has a long history of building internal tools to manage its vast global IT network, then productizing those tools for enterprise customers. Several recent Google Cloud releases follow exactly this pattern: capabilities developed to run Google’s own infrastructure are now available as managed services that customers can consume directly.
June Yang, General Manager of Google Compute at Google Cloud, described the philosophy in an interview with theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during Google Cloud Next OnAir:
“We want to help do the heavy lifting around infrastructure so that a customer can simply consume our infrastructure-as-a-service. We’ll do the plumbing work and allow our customers to innovate on top of that.”
June Yang, General Manager of Google Compute, Google Cloud
Google Cloud VMware Engine
One concrete example of this strategy is Google Cloud VMware Engine. Built internally at Google, the service allows enterprise customers to run VMware workloads as a managed service on top of Google’s infrastructure — without needing to re-architect existing VMware-based applications.
Because the service runs natively on Google Cloud, customers can integrate it with other Google Cloud services. Yang highlighted the ability to connect VMware workloads with BigQuery to extract data and generate insights — a migration path that lets teams modernize analytics capabilities without immediately re-platforming their entire workload stack.
The Grace Hopper Subsea Cable
Google’s cloud ambitions are also backed by significant physical network investment. Shailesh Shukla, Vice President and General Manager of Networking at Google Cloud, noted that approximately 98% of all international internet traffic travels over subsea cables — making that physical layer a critical component of cloud performance and reliability.
Google announced the Grace Hopper subsea cable, a new transatlantic link connecting:
- The United States
- The United Kingdom
- Spain
Named after the pioneering computer scientist Admiral Grace Hopper, the cable is designed to significantly expand bandwidth capacity between the US and Europe, supporting the growing volume of cloud and enterprise traffic crossing the Atlantic.
“It will allow for significant new capability between the U.S. and Europe.”
Shailesh Shukla, VP and GM of Networking, Google Cloud
SD-WAN Partnership with Cisco
Beyond physical cables, Google Cloud also announced a partnership with Cisco Systems to bridge enterprise networks with multi-cloud environments using software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN).
The integration connects SD-WAN connectivity with workloads running on Google Cloud, on-premises environments, or other cloud providers. According to Shukla, the solution provides automated, end-to-end, intelligent and secure bridging of enterprise networks to workloads across multiple clouds and locations.
“It’s one of the first in the industry which creates an automated end-to-end solution that intelligently and securely bridges enterprise networks to any workload across multiple clouds and to other locations.”
Shailesh Shukla, VP and GM of Networking, Google Cloud
For enterprises evaluating multi-cloud strategies, this type of SD-WAN integration reduces the networking complexity involved in connecting on-premises data centers to cloud workloads, particularly in heterogeneous environments where not all workloads are on a single cloud provider.
Key Takeaways for DevOps and Cloud Engineers
- Google Cloud VMware Engine offers a low-friction path for enterprises to migrate VMware workloads to the cloud without re-architecting, while gaining access to Google-native analytics services like BigQuery.
- The Grace Hopper cable reflects Google’s continued investment in private physical network infrastructure as a performance differentiator for its cloud platform.
- The Cisco SD-WAN partnership targets enterprises managing hybrid and multi-cloud environments who need consistent, secure network connectivity across locations and clouds.
- Google’s broader strategy positions its infrastructure investments — cable, networking, compute — as services that shift operational burden away from customers and onto the platform.
Source: SiliconAngle / theCUBE interview with June Yang and Shailesh Shukla, conducted during Google Cloud Next OnAir.