G Suite and Google Cloud: The new Google names you need to know

30 Sep 2016

Google Drive app on phone. Image: NIRUT RUPKHAM/Shutterstock

Google is taking all of its cloud products and putting it under the easily remembered name of Google Cloud, including the new name for its work apps: G Suite.

From a company perspective, the need to make services clearer and less muddled is standard practice. For this reason, Google has announced that all of its cloud services will now fall under the new Google Cloud umbrella.

At a small event to launch the new name, Google’s senior vice president for its cloud business, Diane Greene, said it took a while for the company to agree on the name, having previously considered Google Enterprise as an option.

This, she said, was because it realised its business customers were unsure as to how serious Google was taking cloud platforms, but it has since made its intentions clear.

“Enterprise – that was so June,” Greene said at the event. “We are the full power of Google in the Cloud. We are Google Cloud. It is uniquely Google – a broad set of technologies, solutions and products.”

One product to fall under the new Google Cloud umbrella is Google Apps for Work, or as it is now called, G Suite.

An understandably more modern take on a product name, G Suite will still feature the same products like Drive, Docs, Hangouts and Spreadsheets.

Quick access in Google Drive. GIF: Google

Accesses the files it thinks you need

Google has said that they will now also come with a range of new upgrades, especially when it comes to machine intelligence and its Drive app.

For example, one of the new improvements is a feature called Quick Access that will try to predict what file you want to access without the need to type out a search.

This, Google said, will save time as it will see what files you and your colleagues are working on and presume you want to access the same ones.

This again falls under a new product called Team Drives that creates a team cloud space to work on, but is currently only available to those signed up to an early adopter programme.

A recently introduced Android upgrade for Calendar – that could be synced with colleagues to tell you when and where would be a good place to meet – is also now available on iOS.

This machine intelligence feature will be rolled out to web users by the end of 2016.

“Google Cloud products are for customers of all sizes, from the self-employed and start-ups, all the way to the world’s largest enterprises, including Google itself,” Google said.

Google Drive app on phone. Image: NIRUT RUPKHAM/Shutterstock

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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