Google Cloud Next '18 Highlights

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Gapps Experts had the exciting chance to assist to this past Google Next ‘18, which took place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. This occasion was also very special to us as we had the opportunity to host our own booth where we offered, free 1-on-1 consultations on how to optimize your SaaS subscriptions and gave awesome Google Home prizes.

Next ’18 was a three day global exhibition of inspiration, innovation, and education where business owners, executives, developers, IT professionals, and Google engineers got together to build the future of business practices. This year consisted of 25,000 attendees, which makes it one of the largest gatherings, as it doubled the amount of people from last year (with 10,000).

No FOMO! - If you missed the chance of assisting to this major event, I strongly recommend you to visit Google Cloud’s Youtube channel to watch the recap!
With that said, here’s a list of the major takeaways we had:

Safety comes first!

 "Security is the number one worry, and AI is the number one opportunity". This is how Diane Greene (CEO of Google Cloud) stated, that in order to move forward, the main points of focus for Google Cloud are to become a security provider for all of its users. Therefore, she hinted that nearly a dozen new security features and tools would be available.

#1- New Security Investigation Tool

The tool makes it easier for you to take action against any menace without having to worry about analyzing logs which can be time-consuming and require complex scripting.
If you would like to try it, you can do so by going to Google’s Early Adopter Program (EAP) for G Suite Enterprise customers.

#2- Support for Data Regions

In addition to giving admins a simpler way to keep data secure, Google added support for data regions to G Suite. This means that G Suite will now let customers choose where to store primary data for exclusive globally distributed G Suite apps. 
In other words, if a a file’s owner changes or moves to another organizational unit, Google will automatically move the data, with no impact on the file’s availability to collaborators. Plus, users continue to get full edit rights on content while data is being moved. 

Let the robot do it for you

As mentioned above, AI is “the number one opportunity”. Google’s AI is already helping millions of people around the world navigate, communicate and get things done in less time.

#3- Smart Replies in Hangouts

You already know the Smart Reply in Gmail. A simple functionality that gives you about 3 options on how to reply to an email. Now, Smart Reply is coming to Hangouts Chat to help you respond to messages quicker so you can free up time to focus more on your work!

Basically this technology is supposed to recognize which messages most likely need responses, and proposes three different replies that sound like how you typically respond. The proposed responses are casual enough for chat and yet appropriate in a workplace.

#4- Smart Compose

Google first launched Smart Compose to consumers in May. But now the tool is ready for G Suite customers! What the tool does is to autocomplete your emails; it can fill in greetings, sign offs and common phrases so you can collaborate efficiently. 

In addition to autocompleting common phrases, Smart Compose can insert personalized information like your office or home address, so you won’t need to spend time in repetitive tasks. And best of all is that the more you use it, the smarter becomes! Meaning that the tool will learn how you express yourself with certain people in emails and ensure that next time you use Smart Compose you sound like yourself.

#5- Grammar Corrections for Docs

You no longer have to turn to tools like Grammarly if your essays or articles need proofread. Google has introduced grammar suggestions to Docs users. This new addition, uses machine translation to spot everything from basic grammatical slip ups (such as "a" instead of "an") to larger issues with sentence structure!


How does it work? When Docs detects a possible grammar correction, it will underline it in blue to indicate you might want to check it. You can right-click to see a suggested correction or dismiss the alert.Possible grammar errors will also show up when you run a spelling and grammar check through the tools menu.

Our conclusion

One of the reasons why G Suite is able to deliver real transformation to businesses is that it’s simple to use and adopt. AI seems to be one of Google’s strengths as a cloud platform, but the decision to extend functionalities to the tools you already use and more packaged solutions, is changing the enterprise working and collaboration landscape.

G Suite was born in the cloud and built for the cloud, which means real-time collaboration is effortless. This is why more than a billion people rely on G Suite apps like Gmail, Docs, Drive and more in their personal lives.

Would you like to make the most out of your G Suite solutions? Then Contact us today for personalized assistance!