Cloud computing giant Google has just started selling its Google Distributed Cloud air-gapped appliance that is designed to operate without any connectivity to Google Cloud or the public Internet.
Previously, organisations operating in demanding edge environments would have difficulty accessing computing capabilities like cloud and AI. These scenarios include long-haul trucking, remote research stations and disaster zones.
This new configuration of Google Distributed Cloud promises to bring Google’s cloud and AI capabilities to tactical edge environments.
An air-gapped computer is physically segregated and cannot connect with other computers or network devices. In the same way, the Google Distributed Cloud appliance has integrated software and hardware.
It enables real-time local data processing for AI use cases such as object detection, medical imaging analysis, and predictive maintenance for critical infrastructure. The appliance can be transported in a rugged case or mounted in a rack within customer environments.
The appliance hardware is made of products from Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Dell, and powered by Nvidia GPUs. The built-in AI solutions in the air-gapped appliance include translation, speech, and optical character recognition (OCR).
The appliance can be used in the following areas:
- Industrial automation, for remote equipment monitoring, predictive maintenance, and process optimisation in challenging environments at the edge. For instance, in the manufacturing sector, the appliance can be used to track and optimise equipment performance in remote plants.
- Transportation and logistics companies can use the product for fleet management, autonomous vehicles, and real-time logistics optimisation.
- Sensitive industries where the appliance can be used for restricted workloads, such as sensitive data analysis, AI inference and simulations, and intelligence translation, while abiding by security and supporting compliance regulations.
- In disaster-stricken areas, the appliance can be deployed even without access to Internet connectivity. It enables emergency response as it is pre-loaded with essential software and tools for data collection and analysis.
The growing edge AI market reached US$11.98 billion in 2021, and is expected to reach US$107.47 billion by 2029, according to a report by Fortune Business Insights. Besides Google, other edge AI players include Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Nutanix and Intel.
In Asia, Singapore’s Centre for Strategic Infocomm Technologies (CSIT) is partnering Google Cloud to pilot Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) Hosted, a fully isolated private cloud, with the aim of using AI for defence and security needs. This pilot will involve a fully air-gapped, isolated cloud platform that is not connected to the public cloud or the Internet.
In Thailand, Gulf Edge Company and Google Cloud have announced a multi-year agreement to deliver next-generation sovereign cloud services in Thailand.
Through this agreement, Gulf Edge will operate Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) as a Managed GDC Provider (MGP), with a focus on air-gapped configurations for organisations in Thailand.
