Google has confirmed it is building a new data center cloud region in Israel.
“As we continue to meet growing demand for cloud services in Israel, we’re excited to announce that a new Google Cloud region is coming to Israel to make it easier for customers to serve their own users faster, more reliably, and securely,” Boaz Maoz, Google Cloud’s Israel country manager, said in a post to its Cloud blog.
The company has not provided a date for when the region will be available.
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GCP finally confirms region after winning Nimbus contract
The search giant has long been thought to be building a region in the country, as it was one of the companies in the running for the Government’s Nimbus Cloud project which required local hosting infrastructure.
Earlier this month Israeli publication Haaretz claimed Google was “negotiating with a number of operators of server farms in Israel.”
Google, alongside AWS, was recently awarded the $1.2 billion tender to provide cloud services to Israeli government agencies.
“AWS and Google – the Rolls-Royce and the Masarati of the cloud world!” said Shahar Bracha, Acting CEO of Government ICT Authority, Government CIO, Prime Minister’s Office. “Two of the world's leading cloud companies will build a cloud center in Israel (Data Center) and provide services to the Israeli government, the public sector, the IDF, and other bodies.”
Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM were also in the running for the contract. Oracle says its data center in the country is still on track, but the company is also reportedly challenging the Finance Ministry’s decision not to award it the contract.
Microsoft’s data center in the country was recently pushed back to ‘early 2022’ which was thought to have been a factor in it losing out to AWS and Google, and is also reportedly appealing the decision not be given the contract.
Google reported quarterly losses of $974 million for its Cloud division in its most recent results.