The facility will reduce latency for users of Google services across Poland and neighbouring countries and deliver more efficient connectivity to Google partners and their customers.
Google first announced plans for the Warsaw cloud region in 2019, when it signed a strategic partnership with Poland’s domestic cloud provider Chmura Krajowa. Last year, the Polish government said it expected Google to invest between $1.5 billion and $2 billion in the project - although Google never confirmed any figure itself.
Earlier this year, Google also said that it was going to grow its cloud engineering hub in Warsaw, and named Dan Decasper as Google vice president as the new head of the site.
In addition, the firm is expanding its office in the city of Wrocław by creating a team of specialists supporting enterprises’ implementations of cloud technologies.
Magdalena Dziewguć, Google Cloud’s country manager for Poland, said: “Companies of all sizes and from every industry based in Poland and elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe now have access to cutting-edge technology, including artificial intelligence and data analytics, as well as the full-scale computing power of our global network.”
Among Google customers in Poland already using its cloud services are PKO Bank Polski, retailer LPP, appointments scheduling platform Booksy, travel booking company eSky and digital learning firm Brainly.
Last December, Google said it planned to add a second cloud region in Germany, along with two others in Saudi Arabia and Chile.
This February, for FY20 it was reported that Google Cloud generated losses of $5.6 billion, with a $1.2 billion loss in the fourth quarter. The losses are largely attributed to Google scaling up its infrastructure to better compete against Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.
