Google executive Diane Greene officially rolled out Google Cloud today, the latest re-branding of Google’s many online services, including your Gmail account. Announced at an invite-only event today, Greene said the change was about making it clear that Google is serious about the cloud.
Google Cloud encompasses many services which we all use, like Google Drive, Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Essentially if it’s a Google web service it now falls under the Google Cloud umbrella.
Also under the new Google Cloud brand are the aforementioned Google Apps for Work (Docs, Sheets, Slides), which is getting its own sub-re-brand. They’re the G Suite now, like a fancy hotel room or conference room at a convention center.
There was some speculation earlier this year that a re-brand was on the way, but many observers — including some Google employees — assumed the new brand identity would be something like “Google Enterprise.” Diane Greene acknowledged the speculation in her announcement today.
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“[Google] Enterprise — that was so June. We are the full power of Google in the Cloud, we are Google Cloud. It’s uniquely Google — a broad set of technologies, solutions and products,” Greene said, according to TechCrunch.
The re-brand won’t mean any changes for the users of those services, however, aside from maybe a new logo at the top of the page, but according to Greene, it signifies a new direction for Google’s Cloud services, in particular a new framework for new projects to exist under.
“Today we are also introducing a significant lineup of new cloud technologies and machine intelligence capabilities as well as services, and we’re showcasing how a cross-section of our customers and partners use and work with Google Cloud,” reads the Google blog post on the announcement.
Those new cloud technologies and machine learning capabilities include some incremental changes to existing services like Google Calendar, and you can read more about those here.
