My name is KAM. I’m the principal evangelist at Dito, a premier Google partner and a Google Workspace Top Contributor. Google Next '21 is October 12th to the 14th and open for registration at https://cloud.withgoogle.com/next. Due to the pandemic, Next will be virtual and free! Each year I look forward to the networking, the vendors, the announcements, and the presentations.
This year, Google is running a Next Playlist contest. A Next Playlist is a curated selection of live webinars, recorded sessions, podcast episodes, and articles. Here is a sample of a playlist from last year.
To enter the contest, after you create a playlist on the Google Cloud Next website, you will publish your playlist at https://www.googlecloudcommunity.com/gc/Next-21/ct-p/google-cloud-next-21 and the Google Cloud Community will vote.
There are 4 categories for playlists (CIO/CTO, Data Analytics, Developer, and Workspace). The top 3 most voted entries from each category will win an awesome swag package of a Google branded southland backpack, cotton cap, and a fleece picnic blanket.
All members of the Google Cloud Community are eligible to participate EXCEPT for Top Contributors which is why I will share my list with you to inspire you to publish yours. Before I get to my list, here’s my EXPERT TRADE SHOW HINT: Use a Google Doc to write notes and share it with your colleagues. If they attend the same talk, we can tag team on notes or if not,, we can live vicariously!
Now, without further delay, here is my list of the Top Presentations for this year’s Next:
The Opening and Developer Keynotes. Nothing gets the event off to a good start better than the keynotes typically with a few surprise announcements and plenty of great sneak peaks of the next few days to come. And, I'll definitely be attending the keynote for partners.
Anything Miles Ward Presents. He's a rock star, technical speaker that is perhaps the most entertaining technical speaker I’ve ever met: https://cloud.withgoogle.com/next/speakers?speaker=0642A05069539345
After that, I won't miss "Google Workspace’s Unique Advantages", "Positioning Google Cloud against Microsoft Azure," and "Positioning Google Cloud against AWS". In Infrastructure, I’ll be attending, "Optimizing Microsoft on Google Cloud: All the stuff you need to know." Why? I'm a technologist and love to learn about how things stack up to understand why and when Google stands apart!
I’ll also be attending "Bridging the business, analytics gap with mastered data," too. All of this ties into a big part of my $dayjob combining public data sources, Google BigQuery and solutions including Fivetran to rapidly analyze massive amounts of data from all different sources especially for regulated industries like healthcare and finsec. Quick Commercial: If you are interested in BigQuery but don’t know how to get started, check out https://enrichgcp.com and Dito’s | BigQuery | inaBOX. BQinaBOX is a fast, secure, and free way to get up to speed on using BigQuery with your data.
In Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, I’ll be tuning in to, "What’s new and what’s next with infrastructure for AI and ML," to see what Google has up their sleeves for next year in AI Magic.
In Application Development, containerization is the way to go so I’ll be at, "Applying Kubernetes app development best practices! Dito is a recent Kubernetes Certified Solutions Provider too so ping me if with K8s too. Craig Barber’s "Modernizing app development and delivery with the Google Cloud golden path," looks great and Google’s golden path is worth hearing about In Application Modernization (or AppMod), I’m all about laziness, I mean automation so I’ll be listening to, "Automate the modernization of VM-based applications to containers.". Rounding out my containerization presentations will be, "How MLB simplified their IT stack using Anthos on bare metal" because I like baseball, Anthos, and I’m hoping they have a Moneyball story!
And Moneyball leads me to this track In Data analytics, "Take me into the ballgame," because I like baseball and the title intrigues me. Next up, "Reinventing customer experiences with real-time analytics." I’m all about collecting data, determining metrics, creating baselines, setting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and demonstrating success through science.
In the Business Application Platform, I’m looking forward to the presentations, "Unlock your data with API-first integration using Apigee" and "How Apigee and AppSheet enable enterprises to unlock application innovation." APIs allow automation and efficiency. Quick shout out to the Swiss Army tool for every Workspace Administrator, GAM, and thanks Jay Lee and Ross Scroggs!
In Databases, I want to hear what they have in mind for databases with,, "The future of mobile and web app development with cloud databases." In Industry Transformation, I have seen telehealth revolutionized during the pandemic, so I want to hear more about, "COVID-19: A catalyst for lasting healthcare transformation". Rounding out the transformation track, I’ll be attending, "Gaming at Planet-scale with Google Cloud."
In Diversity, Equity, and Inclusions, my thanks to Dr. Kim Tran and Stephanie Taylor Google Summer of Code for her great Allyship presentation. Google has been really leading this space and I’m excited for what the father of the internet has to say during, "A conversation with Vint Cerf and Jim Hogan on disability in tech."
In Google Workspace, I’m looking forward to hearing, "Red Hat on how it's built with Google Workspace," and "How to govern an innovative workforce and reduce shadow IT". I love RHEL/CentOS and getting a handle on Shadow IT is one of the biggest issues in cyber security that too many firms ignore.
Finally, in Security, I’ll be attending, "Ransomware and cyber resilience," and "Operate with zero trust using BeyondCorp Enterprise." I’ve been a cyber warrior for multiple decades and John Kindervag’s Zero Trust networks is something every network administrator and cyber security person needs to appreciate.
What’s your #1 picks for presentations to attend at this year's Google Next? Put together a playlist and win some great Google Swag.
-KAM
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