Google has already been named as an investor in the recently-announced HAVFRUE cable that will connect the US to Denmark and Ireland, but it is also investing in the Hong Kong-Guam Cable System (HK-G) and Curie, which will run from Chile to Los Angeles.
Along with these new cables, Google Cloud has also announced plans to open up to new regions, according to Ben Treynor, 24x7 VP at Google Cloud.
“We’ll open our Netherlands and Montreal regions in the first quarter of 2018, followed by Los Angeles, Finland, and Hong Kong – with more to come,” he said. The new regions and infrastructure will mean faster and reliable connectivity for Google Cloud customers, the firm said.
The Curie cable, named after scientist Marie curie, will make Google the first major non-telecom company to build a private intercontinental cable. It will be the first new cable to land in Chile in almost 20 years, and will become the largest single data pipe connecting the country, Google claims. It is due to go live in 2019.
“By deploying our own private subsea cable, we help improve global connectivity while providing value to our customers,” Treynor added in a blog post. “Owning the cable ourselves has some distinct benefits.
“Since we control the design and construction process, we can fully define the cable’s technical specifications, streamline deployment, and deliver service to users and customers faster. Also, once the cable is deployed, we can make routing decisions that optimize for latency and availability.”
HAVFRUE, taken from the Danish word for mermaid, is a consortium cable running across the Atlantic between New Jersey and Denmark. Facebook, Aqua Comms, and Bulk Infrastructure are also involved in the development of the cable, which will be built by TE Subcom and is due for completion in 2019.
Google is also working with RTI-C and NEC on te HKG cable system, which will help boost its network capacity in its new Hong Kong region, Google said. These three cables will take Google’s direct investments up to 11 cables, with the others including: Indigo, PLCN, Tannat, Junior, Monet, FASTER, SJC and UNITY. It also leases capacity on several cables
Overall, the Google network has over 100 points of presence and over 7,500 edge caching nodes. This investment means faster and more reliable connectivity Google users and partners, it claims, such as PayPal.
“At PayPal, we process billions of transactions across the globe, and need to do so securely, instantaneously, and economically. As a result, security, networking, and infrastructure were key considerations for us when choosing a cloud provider,” said Sri Shivananda, PayPal’s SVP and chief technology officer.
“With Google Cloud, we have access to the world’s largest network, which helps us reach our infrastructure goals and best serve our millions of users.”
