Are you tired on online events yet? No? You might be the only one. There are a few events popping up in person, but looks like we’re all stuck with “amazing digital experiences” for the next while. But at least the organizers are learning about what works and improving the events! Last year’s Google Cloud Next lasted for nine weeks, which was about eight weeks too long. Sorry about that. This year, our flagship cloud conference is a brisk three days, from October 12-14. And it’s free, which is cool.

Cloud Next matters because a lot of what Google Cloud shares becomes widely adopted by others later on. Might as well get it here first!

I flipped through the agenda to find the talks that interested me the most. Obviously my keynote/demo thing will be the most glorious session, but let’s put that aside. As I browsed the catalog, I identified a handful of themes. Here are fifteen talks I’m excited about, spread across my three made-up themes: familiar but better, migration ready, and optimized for scale.

Familiar but better

This is the story of Google Cloud. Things that resemble cloud services or products you’ve used before, but more full-featured, easier to use, and more reliable. Talks that stood out:

• What’s new and what’s next with Google Cloud databases. People often choose Google Cloud upfront because of our great AI/ML and data story. Check out this session to see how our databases feel familiar, but offer more than you might expect.
• What’s new in serverless? It’s great that some clouds got us all started with serverless computing, but come to this talk to hear what everyone will be doing next.
• Addressing advanced use cases with new Cloud Functions capabilities. Cloud Functions feels similar to other function-as-a-service platforms, but you quickly notice how much easier it is to use.
• How Meow Wolf creates immersive alternate realities with SADA and Anthos. Cool name, cool partner. This company upgraded how they were doing things.
• Modernizing app development and delivery with the Google Cloud golden path. If you’re working with containers, there’s no better end-to-end experience than what you’ll see here.
• Enterprise-ready modern applications with Go. No, I’m not trolling you Java and .NET fans. Live your life. But if you want a modern language that’s popular for building meaningful systems, Go is pretty great. This’ll be a fun session.

Migration ready

It’s fun to build and modernize, but many folks are looking for a clean path to migrate to the cloud faster, while working with what they already have. There are a few talks about this:

• How CoreLogic is replatforming 10,000+ Cloud Foundry app-instances with Kf. Cloud Foundry was amazing and solved a lot of problems for folks. At the same time, it’s a strategic blunder to make a new investment in it today. Here’s how CoreLogic is migrating to what’s next.
• Automate the modernization of VM-based applications to containers. We’re making it easier to migrate VMs to cloud, or migrate VMs into containers first. This is good tech that you’re seeing other clouds try and duplicate!
• Top use cases to start your serverless journey. Serverless doesn’t HAVE to be a total rewrite, but rather, you can migrate things to a mix of managed services and serverless compute.
• 5 hybrid and multicloud architecture designs for an effective cloud strategy. Amina from Google and Scott from HSBC look at how to figure out an architecture that works with wherever you already have a foothold.

Optimized for scale

Many are past the first cloud wave of using stuff in small pockets. Now it’s about running things effectively at scale from a cost, security, manageability perspective. Talks I like:

• How Goldman Sachs manages Google Cloud resources with Anthos Config Management. Managing fleets of self-service, elastic infrastructure is no joke. This is a good story on how Goldman Sachs is getting a handle on it.
• Six incredibly powerful GKE capabilities you might have missed. Even if your business is growing like crazy and everything is awesome, you probably care about managing costs at scale. The GKE team is doing some great work here.
• Process billions of pages and cut operational costs with DocAI. Usable AI at scale? I like it.
• Event-driven applications with Eventarc and Cloud Run. I like the use of event-driven systems, especially as you scale out. Eventarc is a very cool service that helps you respond to service changes quickly.
• CI/CD Anywhere – Build, test and deploy across clouds and on-premises. Look close, and you realize that clouds like Google Cloud are stretching to wherever you are. It’s intriguing to extend cloud-based CI/CD systems to every location!

There’s lots of other terrific talks covering security, analytics, infrastructure, and more, so do check out the whole catalog. I hope to see you at Cloud Next, and drop into my presentation to heckle me or provide moral support.