Welcome to issue #420 October 14th, 2024

News

Accelerate AI production with data agents and BigQuery platform enhancements - Google Cloud introduces new capabilities to connect all your data to AI, making data accessible, actionable, and transformative for enterprises. With a data cloud based on open standards, you can now ingest, configure, tune, scale, monitor, and upgrade real-time workloads with new managed services for Flink and Kafka.

New BigQuery capabilities for data and AI governance - Dataplex provides unified governance for data and AI assets in the cloud, enabling automated discovery, curation, and management at scale. With new features such as automated cataloging, enhanced lineage tracking, intelligent search, AI-powered data insights, and governance rules, Dataplex empowers organizations to navigate the complexities of data in the era of generative AI and unlock its full potential for innovation and transformation.

BigQuery tables for Apache Iceberg: optimized storage for the open lakehouse - BigQuery tables for Apache Iceberg, a fully managed, Apache Iceberg-compatible storage engine from BigQuery, offer optimized storage for the open lakehouse. It provides features like autonomous storage optimizations, clustering, and high-throughput streaming ingestion.

Write better log queries, faster: Introducing pipe syntax in BigQuery and Cloud Logging - BigQuery and Cloud Logging introduce new features to revolutionize log management and analysis. BigQuery's pipe syntax simplifies SQL for log data, enabling intuitive data transformations and faster insights.

Better together: BigQuery and Spanner expand operational insights with external datasets - Spanner external datasets for BigQuery allow analysts to connect Spanner schema to BigQuery datasets, enabling them to explore and query Spanner tables as if they were native BigQuery tables.

Real-time data for real-world AI with support for Apache Flink in BigQuery - BigQuery Engine for Apache Flink, now in preview, provides a serverless real-time intelligence platform. It allows users to easily migrate existing streaming applications relying on Apache Flink to Google Cloud without code rewriting or third-party services.

Gain control of your Google Cloud costs: Introducing the Cost Attribution Solution - The Google Cloud Cost Attribution Solution helps organizations manage and understand their cloud costs by providing tools and best practices to improve cost metadata and labeling governance processes. It enables granular cost breakdowns, data-driven decisions, and customizable reporting through the strategic application of labels to Google Cloud resources.

Reduce unexpected costs with the new AI-powered Cost Anomaly Detection - Google Cloud introduces Cost Anomaly Detection, an AI-powered tool that helps businesses identify and control unexpected cost spikes in their cloud spending. It continuously monitors cloud projects and detects anomalies in real or near-real time, providing detailed root-cause analysis and customizable alerts. Cost Anomaly Detection requires no setup, is available at no cost, and integrates with existing cost management tools like Budgets.

Project Shield expands free DDoS protection to even more organizations and nonprofits - Project Shield, a free DDoS protection service from Google Cloud, has expanded its eligibility criteria to include organizations representing marginalized groups and non-profits supporting the arts and sciences.

Database Center — your AI-powered, unified fleet management solution - Database Center, an AI-powered, unified fleet management solution from Google Cloud, is now available to all customers. It provides a single, intuitive interface to monitor and operate database fleets at scale, including Cloud SQL, AlloyDB, and Spanner. With Database Center, organizations can gain a comprehensive view of their entire database landscape, proactively de-risk their fleet with intelligent performance and security recommendations, and optimize their database fleet with AI-powered assistance.

Introducing AI-powered app dev with code customization from Gemini Code Assist Enterprise - Google Cloud introduces Gemini Code Assist Enterprise, an AI-powered application development solution that provides contextual suggestions, enterprise-grade security, and integrations across the cloud. It offers deep local codebase awareness, code customization based on an organization's best practices, and is available in various Google Cloud services like Firebase, Databases, and BigQuery.

AUI’s Apollo offers businesses the next generation of AI agents on Google Cloud - Google Cloud has partnered with AUI to accelerate the deployment of AI agents for consumer and enterprise companies. AUI's Apollo, a neuro-symbolic agentic language model, integrates seamlessly with Google Cloud products like BigQuery and Vertex AI, enabling businesses to analyze verbal interactions with their customers and optimize runtime, inference, and performance.

Achieve global scale and greater flexibility with new Memorystore enhancements - Google Cloud's Memorystore for Redis Cluster and Valkey now offer cross-region replication and single-shard clusters.

Efficiently serve optimized AI models with NVIDIA NIM microservices on GKE - NVIDIA NIM microservices are now available on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), enabling efficient deployment of optimized AI models with a single command. These containerized microservices provide standard APIs for seamless integration into generative AI applications and workflows. The combination of NVIDIA NIM and GKE unlocks new potential for AI model inference, delivering optimal latency and throughput with the scale and operational efficiency of GKE.

Integrate Oracle EBS insights faster with Google Cloud Cortex Framework - Google Cloud Cortex Framework now supports Oracle EBS, making it easier to integrate Oracle EBS operational data with other enterprise information into a single, scalable data foundation in BigQuery.

Articles, Tutorials

Infrastructure, Networking, Security, Kubernetes

GKE and the dreaded IP_SPACE_EXHAUSTED error: Understanding the culprit - GKE's IP allocation strategy can lead to the "IP_SPACE_EXHAUSTED" error, even if the primary subnet has enough addresses. The key factor is the number of /24 slices in the pod IPv4 range, which determines the maximum number of nodes. To avoid this error, carefully plan subnets and pod ranges, considering maximum pods per node and potential scaling.

How to protect your site from DDoS attacks with the power of Google Cloud networking and network security - Protect your site from DDoS attacks with Google Cloud's powerful networking and network security capabilities. The Project Shield offering, which leverages Google's Cloud networking and Global Front End infrastructure, provides robust defense against DDoS attacks.

Policy Validation with Terraform Vet: Enforcing Cloud Security Rules in Google Cloud - Policy Validation with Terraform Vet is a tool that helps enforce cloud security rules in Google Cloud. It validates Terraform plans against a set of policies, ensuring compliance with organizational policies before deployment. This preventive control helps block non-compliant infrastructure, reducing security risks and policy violations.

GCP Firewalls Deep Dive - This article explores the various firewall solutions available on GCP, including Layer 3 (L3) and Layer 7 (L7) firewalls, and provides guidance on choosing the right solution based on specific security requirements.

Custom Domain Mapping using Google Cloud Load Balancer - This article provides a step-by-step guide on how to map a custom domain to a Cloud Run service using Google Cloud Load Balancer. It covers setting up backend services, creating Network Endpoint Groups (NEG), configuring SSL certificates for secure HTTPS traffic, and authenticating with Google Cloud.

App Development, Serverless, Databases, DevOps

Project IDX : Starter Templates - Project IDX is a cloud-based IDE that offers a range of templates for developers to quickly start building applications. These templates cover various categories such as web apps, backend, mobile, AI & ML, and more.

Getting the most out of Gemini Code Assist - Explore advanced techniques, features, and tools to maximize the utility you get from Gemini Code Assist and to feed your curiosity.

Real Time Alert with Google Cloud Logging in 5 Minutes - Hands on tutorial about: How to create realtime alert with google cloud logging.

Accessing secured Google Cloud functions from the browser - Making HTTP requests from browser extensions to Cloud functions requiring authentication.

Deploying Next JS Application to Google’s App Engine (GAE) - This article describes how to set and deploy Next.js application to Google App Engine.

Deploying a Generative AI application with vector store to Cloud Run - This blog post describes how to build and deploy a Generative AI application using Firestore, Vertex AI, and Cloud Run.

Google Cloud Run always-on vs on-demand CPU allocation - Google Cloud Run offers two CPU allocation options: always-on and on-demand. Always-on provides continuous CPU availability but can be more expensive, while on-demand connects the CPU only when needed, potentially saving costs. However, on-demand pricing can be higher per second, making it more suitable for applications with intermittent usage. Comparing costs is crucial to determine the most cost-effective option for specific applications.

Building a shared GFS2 filesystem with Hyperdisk Balanced HA multi-writer - This blog post describes how to build a highly available and performant shared filesystem on Google Cloud using Hyperdisk Balanced HA multi-writer with GFS2.

Safeguarding Your Dialogflow CX Agents: A Guide to Export/Import - This blog post provides a comprehensive guide to safeguarding your GCP Dialogflow CX agents through export and import processes. It covers manual and automated backup methods, including creating a GCP bucket, exporting and restoring agents, and setting up automated backups using Cloud Pub/Sub, Cloud Storage, and Cloud Functions.

Big Data, Analytics, ML&AI

How Virgin Media O2 simplified internal data sharing with BigQuery’s Analytics Hub - Virgin Media O2, a media and telecommunications company, faced challenges in sharing data across departments, leading to inefficiencies and slow decision-making. They implemented Google Cloud's BigQuery Analytics Hub to streamline internal data sharing, enabling real-time access, improved data management, and reduced manual effort.

From products to process: Delivering personalization at scale with data at EE - EE, a leading UK mobile network, transformed its customer experience by leveraging Google Cloud's data and machine learning capabilities. Through its Household360 initiative, EE captures and analyzes customer data to deliver personalized offers, enhance communication, and reduce marketing fatigue.

Generating synthetic data with BigQuery and Gretel - Create synthetic data with Gretel in BigQuery. Generate privacy-preserving synthetic versions of your BigQuery datasets directly within your existing workflows using the Gretel SDK. Protect data privacy, enhance data accessibility, and accelerate testing and development. Unlock the full potential of your data while mitigating privacy risks, improving data accessibility, and accelerating innovation.

Using BigQuery Omni to reduce log ingestion and analysis costs in a multi-cloud environment - BigQuery Omni helps reduce the cost of log analytics in multi-cloud environments by eliminating the need for Apache Spark workloads and providing a unified querying process across cloud providers. It offers reduced engineering and compute resources, as well as lower egress costs.

Building a real-time analytics platform using BigQuery and Bigtable - BigQuery and Bigtable are two powerful Google Cloud services that can be used together to build real-time analytics platforms. By using Reverse ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) between BigQuery and Bigtable, you can bridge the gap between analytics and operational systems and get the best of both worlds: the high performance of Bigtable and the powerful analytics capabilities of BigQuery.

Google Agent Assist: Redefining Customer Service Through AI-Powered Efficiency - Google Agent Assist is an AI-powered tool that enhances customer service by providing real-time suggestions and guidance to agents during calls and chats. It offers contextual and real-time assistance, customizable for unique business needs, and supports both text and voice channels.

Local Development with Google Cloud Managed Service for Apache Kafka - This blog post shows you how to use a bastion host to securely connect to your Google Cloud Managed Service for Apache Kafka cluster from your local development environment.

Using OAuth to connect to Google Managed Service for Apache Kafka - Google has recently announced a managed service for Apache Kafka. This blog post explains how to connect to the Managed Service for Apache Kafka using OAuth.

Google Pipe Syntax: Modernizing SQL Without Sacrificing its Strengths - Pipe syntax modernizes SQL without sacrificing its strengths. It addresses SQL's limitations, including inside-out data flow, side-effects at a distance, rigid clause order, redundant clauses, subquery overload, and limited extensibility. Pipe syntax simplifies queries, making them more readable, maintainable, and flexible. However, it preserves SQL's core strengths, such as its powerful foundation, interoperability, composability, widespread adoption, and mature ecosystem.

Multi-Agent interactions with Autogen and Gemini — Part 2 : Terminating Conversations - This is the second part of a series exploring multi-agent conversations using the Autogen framework. In this part, we focus on terminating conversations based on specific feedback from one of the agents. We introduce the `is_termination_msg` condition in the CFP Writer agent, which checks for a specific message (e.g., "Looks good") in the response from the CFP Reviewer agent. If this message is detected, the conversation is terminated. We also modify the System Message for the CFP Reviewer to suggest mentioning "looks good" when there are no significant improvements. The final code is provided, and the complete repository is available on GitHub.

Tutorial : Multi-Agent interactions with Autogen and Gemini — Part 3: Introducing Manual Human Intervention - This part is a continuation of exploring the basics of getting Multi-Agent conversations using the Autogen framework.

Tutorial : Multi-Agent interactions with Autogen and Gemini — Part 4: Using local LLMs - In this tutorial, we demonstrate how to use the Autogen framework to create multi-agent interactions with local Language Large Models (LLMs) using Ollama. The code is modified to use the local LLM list instead of the Google Gemini list. This allows developers to run LLMs locally and integrate them into their Autogen applications.

Building ReAct Agents from Scratch: A Hands-On Guide using Gemini

Divide the query to improve cost and performance - BigQuery query optimization techniques to reduce costs and improve performance when querying spatial data. Methods include explicitly specifying single-row selections, splitting queries, and utilizing clustering. The optimized query resulted in a significant reduction in scanned bytes and slot-seconds, demonstrating the effectiveness of these techniques.

Integrating GCP Pub/Sub with Kotlin Using Local Emulators - Google Cloud Pub/Sub is a powerful solution for event-driven architectures, allowing asynchronous communication between microservices. However, developing directly in the cloud can be costly and complex. This is where emulators come into play. Google Cloud Platform Emulator refers to a tool that allows developers to simulate GCP services locally. By using emulators, developers can build, test, and debug applications without having to deploy them to the cloud. This is particularly useful in situations where cloud usage may incur costs, or where developers want to ensure their applications are functioning correctly before going live.

Recovering from a BigQuery Disaster: Lessons Learned - At Slang Labs, we faced a critical situation when a crucial production table in BigQuery was accidentally replaced, affecting customer analytics dashboards. To address this, we leveraged BigQuery's historical versioning feature and successfully recovered the data using the FOR SYSTEM_TIME AS OF expression. We encountered a challenge with preserving the original clustering and partitioning but found a robust solution using GCP Cloud Shell. This experience highlighted the importance of understanding data recovery tools and conducting regular disaster recovery drills to ensure preparedness.

Various

Check out how AI startups are accelerating their growth with Google Cloud - Google Cloud has launched the ISV Startup Springboard program to accelerate the growth and innovation of AI and cybersecurity startups. The 12-week program provides startups with access to the latest technology, advisory services, marketing support, and partnership opportunities. Over 100 startups have already benefited from the program, including Baseten, Dataloop, Galileo, Gretel, HumanFirst, and Roboflow. Google Cloud is also collaborating with venture capital partners to extend resources and expertise to a wider pool of promising AI ventures.

Helping more AI startups build and go to market with Google Cloud - Google Cloud hosted its annual Startup Summit, showcasing innovative companies leveraging Google Cloud AI to impact various industries.

Scaling up in the cloud: 6 UK startups unlocking growth through digital transformation - Six UK startups are using Google Cloud to drive digital transformation and scale up their businesses. These startups include OnBuy, an online marketplace using AI for product auto-categorization; Spoon Guru, a food discovery platform using data management and AI to help users with dietary preferences; VEED, a video editing platform using AI to create professional videos; Motorway, a used car marketplace using AI to streamline internal processes; BioCortex, a biotech startup using AI to accelerate drug discovery; and AIApply, a job search platform using AI to help job seekers find the right fit and make a great first impression.

Slides, Videos, Audio

Security Podcast - #193 Inherited a Cloud? Now What? How Do I Secure It?

Releases

AlloyDB - AlloyDB lets you restart one or more nodes of a read pool. AlloyDB for PostgreSQL minor versions are upgraded to 15.7 and 14.12.

Google Distributed Cloud Bare Metal - 1.30. Release 1.30.200-gke.101 Google Distributed Cloud for bare metal 1.30.200-gke.101 is now available for download. Updated the bmctl update command to identify differences (if any) between the preview feature annotations in the cluster configuration file and the annotations in the deployed Cluster resource. Fixes: Fixed an issue where the control plane VIP might become unavailable because Keepalived didn't check correctly that the VIP is on a node with a responsive HAProxy. The following container image security vulnerabilities have been fixed in 1.30.200-gke.101: Critical container vulnerabilities: CVE-2024-37371 High-severity container vulnerabilities: CVE-2023-47038 CVE-2024-0553 CVE-2024-0567 CVE-2024-37370 CVE-2024-39487 CVE-2024-41040 CVE-2024-41046 CVE-2024-41049 CVE-2024-41059 CVE-2024-41070 CVE-2024-42104 CVE-2024-42148 Medium-severity container vulnerabilities: CVE-2016-3709 CVE-2023-5981 CVE-2024-36901 CVE-2024-36938 CVE-2024-41009 CVE-2024-41012 CVE-2024-41055 CVE-2024-41063 CVE-2024-41064 CVE-2024-42101 CVE-2024-42102 CVE-2024-42131 CVE-2024-42137 CVE-2024-42152 CVE-2024-42153 CVE-2024-42154 CVE-2024-42157 CVE-2024-42161 CVE-2024-42223 CVE-2024-42224 CVE-2024-42229 CVE-2024-42232 CVE-2024-42236 CVE-2024-42244 CVE-2024-42247 CVE-2024-7264 Low-severity container vulnerabilities: CVE-2022-2309 CVE-2022-48303 CVE-2024-41007. Known issues: For information about the latest known issues, see Google Distributed Cloud for bare metal known issues in the Troubleshooting section.

Google Distributed Cloud VM Runtime - 1.30. A new release of VM Runtime on Google Distributed Cloud is available as part of the Google Distributed Cloud for bare metal 1.30.0-gke.1930 release, which is now available for download. Added support for the virtctl diagnose command to diagnose VM issues and the virtctl snapshot command to collect VMRuntime logs for debugging. Added support for configuring live migration maxDowntime through the kubevirt migration policy. Updated the live migration flow to remove the old virt-launcher pod after a successful live migration. Updated VM Runtime to mark a VMI as unready when the VM hits IO/sync error. Increased the nodeMonitorGracePeriod default value for node high availability to 55 seconds to tolerate cluster API unavailability due to etcd failover. Moved the configuration for node high availability to spec.haPolicy in the vmruntime resource. Changed the KubeVirt restore short name to virtvmrestore to avoid conflict with vmrestore that's used by VM Runtime on GDC. Removed the erroneous "No disk capacity" error from the virt-launcher log. Fixed a networking issue on live migration. Refactored the high-availability (HA) logic to fix a corner case issue in HA. Disabled the VM generation check for the autoRestartOnConfigurationChange feature, because the check isn't accurate.

Anthos clusters on VMware - Google Distributed Cloud (software only) for VMware 1.30.200-gke.101 is now available for download. Removed TLS/SSL weak message authentication code cipher suites in the vSphere cloud controller manager. The following issues are fixed in 1.30.200-gke.101: Fixed the known issue that caused migrating a user cluster to Controlplane V2 to fail if secrets encryption had ever been enabled.

GDCV for VMware - Google Distributed Cloud (software only) for VMware 1.30.200-gke.101 is now available for download. Removed TLS/SSL weak message authentication code cipher suites in the vSphere cloud controller manager. The following issues are fixed in 1.30.200-gke.101: Fixed the known issue that caused migrating a user cluster to Controlplane V2 to fail if secrets encryption had ever been enabled.

Apigee UI - On October 11, 2024, we released an updated version of the Apigee UI. Bug ID Description 357165778 VerifyIAM policy selection removed for hybrid organizations.

Apigee Advanced API Security - On October 8, 2024 we released an updated version of Advanced API Security. New features added to the Risk Assessment v2 preview This release introduces new features to the Risk Assessment v2 preview: Support for custom security profiles.

Apigee X - On October 8, 2024, we released an updated version of Apigee (1-13-0-apigee-6). Bug ID Description 361714906 Fixed synchronization issue with Cloud KMS keys Implemented recovery mechanism for the Apigee dataplane in the event of an extended disruption in the CloudKMS key service.

App Hub - You can now view system metrics for your App Hub applications on App Hub and using the Metrics Explorer.

Application Integration - Build integrations with Gemini Code Assist (GA) Building integrations with Gemini Code Assist is now generally available (GA).

Cloud Architecture Center - (New series) Architecture Framework: AI and ML perspective: Describes principles and recommendations that are specific to AI and ML, for each pillar of the Architecture Framework: operational excellence, security, reliability, cost optimization, and performance optimization.

Google Cloud Armor - Cloud Armor support for IP address groups is Generally Available. Cloud Armor support for regional internal Application Load Balancers is Generally Available.

Artifact Registry - Artifact Registry artifact download rules are in Preview.

Cloud Asset Inventory - The following resource types are now publicly available through the ExportAssets, ListAssets, BatchGetAssetsHistory, QueryAssets, Feed, and Search (SearchAllResources, SearchAllIamPolicies) APIs.

Assured Workloads for Goverment - v1beta1. You can now view and apply workload updates to ensure that your workloads are using the most recent control package configuration.

BigQuery - Use the BigQuery migration assessment for Oracle to assess the complexity of migrating data from your Oracle data warehouse to BigQuery. BigQuery tables for Apache Iceberg bring the convenience of BigQuery storage optimization to Apache Iceberg tables that reside in your own cloud buckets. You can now export and load Parquet files that include GeoParquet metadata. You can now use pipe syntax anywhere you write GoogleSQL.

Bigtable - Hot backups, optimized backups to restore your data to production performance availability more efficiently, are now generally available (GA).

Chronicle SOAR - Release 6.3.22 is currently in Preview. Gemini Case Summary has been added as a placeholder to playbook actions. Unexpected behavior between system-wide and user preference localization time zone settings. The Remote Agent page doesn't display all the integrations and connectors. Advanced Reports not displaying all the information. Vw Dashboard Alerts HasPlaybook column shows incorrect information. Issue with Siemplify Create or Update Entity action. The search_everything database is displaying incorrect entity values. SDK _get_case_by_id function does not return case tags, even though the case has tags. Case Close Root Causes may cause errors when removed from playbook. CaseSearchEverything API time zone discrepancies. Playbook errors remain in the Pending Actions widget even after re-running their playbook. Parallel action name changes are not reflecting the subsequent actions in a playbook.

Compute Engine - Public preview: Instance flexibility in a managed instance group (MIG) lets you configure multiple machine types in the group. Preview: An updated version of the gVNIC driver for Windows offers improved network performance and support for Jumbo frames.

Data Catalog - v1. In the data lineage list view, you can filter lineage information based on the time that lineage occurred.

Data Catalog Resources - v1. In the data lineage list view, you can filter lineage information based on the time that lineage occurred.

Database Migration Service - Database Migration Service for homogeneous MySQL to Cloud SQL for MySQL migrations now supports MySQL version 8.4. Database Migration Service for homogeneous PostgreSQL migrations to Cloud SQL does not automatically enable point-in-time recovery (PITR) for the destination instance when you promote the migration job.

Dataform - Dataform is available in the following regions: asia-northeast2 asia-south2 australia-southeast2 europe-central2 europe-north1 europe-west8 europe-west9 europe-west10 me-west1 northamerica-northeast2 southamerica-west1 us-west3 For more information, see Locations.

Dataplex - In the data lineage list view, you can filter lineage information based on the time that lineage occurred.

Dataproc Serverless - New Dataproc Serverless for Spark runtime versions: 1.1.83 1.2.27 2.2.27.

Datastream - Datastream is now available in the me-central2 (Dammam) region. The maximum row size that Datastream supports when streaming data to Cloud Storage is now increased to 100 MB.

Cloud Deploy - You can now block rollouts during a specified time window, using deploy policies, in preview. Cloud Deploy now uses Skaffold 2.13 as the default Skaffold version, as of October 4, 2024, for all target types.

Cloud Data Loss Prevention - The KOREA_DRIVERS_LICENSE_NUMBER infoType detector is available in all regions. The INDONESIA_PASSPORT infoType detector is available in all regions.

Cloud Filestore - Deletion protection is now generally available for Filestore instances.

Cloud Functions - You can now manage function resources using custom constraints that get enforced at the project level.

Gemini - The Standard and Enterprise editions for Gemini Code Assist are now available. You can now assign Gemini Code Assist subscription licenses to users in your organization.

Cloud Logging - Ops Agent release 2.51.0 adds support for Compute Engine Arm VMs that are running Rocky Linux 8. You can now include pipe syntax in the SQL queries you run on the Log Analytics page.

Looker - Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes. Looker 24.18 includes the following changes, features, and fixes: Expected Looker (original) deployment start: Monday, October 14, 2024 Expected Looker (original) final deployment and download available: Thursday, October 24, 2024 Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) deployment start: Monday, October 14, 2024 Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) final deployment: Monday, October 28, 2024. As of Looker 24.18, Google Maps is the only visualization engine for all map visualizations. In Looker application API methods that include a query_id field, or, in the case of Query APIs, an id field, the query_id and id fields no longer accept a numeric value and now require a query slug value. The LookML validator will now return an error if an Explore name contains the % character. The Studio in Looker feature is now available to preview for most Looker-hosted and Looker (Google Cloud core) instances. The Chart Config Editor now lets you change the data label color. The Chart Config Editor now supports a {log} variable, which returns all available data values for an attribute. Improved search now returns more complete results for folders and Explores. The Home page now displays updated Favorites and Recently Viewed sections. The Explore query tracker is now generally available. An issue has been fixed where the model_fieldname_suggestions API failed to generate suggestions when a suggest_explore and suggest_dimension were defined. When a field is referenced in a SQL field that does not allow field references, such as sql_table_name, the LookML validator message that is returned is now more descriptive. Previously, interacting with chart legends could impact visualization performance. The Get Async Query Results API now returns a string rather than a QueryTask object. An issue that was preventing users from downloading or scheduling dashboards without any tiles has been resolved. An issue has been fixed where heatmaps would not render data when switching from a legacy map to a Google Maps visualization. Previously, drilling on values with ampersands would return incomplete results. The filters tab in the Save to Dashboard dialog in an Explore now scrolls when there are many filters present. Looker now loads projects faster when a user first enters dev mode for a project. Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes. Cloud Audit Log is now generally available for Looker (Google Cloud Core) instances. You can use the BigQuery Quickstart connection to create a default BigQuery connection that can leverage Application Default Credentials. The principal_subject attribute in the Cloud audit logs now includes the Looker user ID. Looker (original) only changes. The Propose to switch to google map if mapbox fails within the dashboard Looker Labs feature has been removed. The Dashboard in Drill Menus Looker Labs feature has been removed.

Cloud Monitoring - With the Ops Agent version 2.51.0, you can now collect a set of observability metrics from NVIDIA Data Center GPU Manager (DCGM). Your App Hub applications are now writing metadata labels. Ops Agent release 2.51.0 adds support for Compute Engine Arm VMs that are running Rocky Linux 8. The user interface for configuring which events to show on a dashboard has been simplified.

reCAPTCHA Enterprise - reCAPTCHA Mobile SDK v18.7.0-beta01 is now available for Android.

Cloud Run - You can now deploy and configure a multi-region service from a single gcloud CLI command (in Preview).

Security Command Center - Install new version of the Security Command Center Enterprise use case The installation and configuration of a new version of the SCC Enterprise - Cloud Orchestration & Remediation use case in the Security Operations console is required for the toxic combination functionality of Security Command Center Enterprise. Vulnerability management dashboard released to Preview The new Vulnerability management dashboard lets you investigate CVE vulnerabilities identified in your Google Cloud and AWS environments.

Sensitive Data Protection - The KOREA_DRIVERS_LICENSE_NUMBER infoType detector is available in all regions. The INDONESIA_PASSPORT infoType detector is available in all regions.

SAP Solutions - SAP HANA: support for deploying striped disk to host the data directory To enable you to deploy striped disks for hosting the /hana/data directory, we have done the following: Updated our documentation with the minimum sizes for SSD-based Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk volumes. Google Cloud's Agent for SAP version 3.6 Version 3.6 of Google Cloud's Agent for SAP is generally available (GA).

Cloud Spanner - Spanner now lets you create incremental backups through a backup schedule. Spanner is now available on Database Center in Preview. An open-source Cassandra to Spanner proxy adapter is now available. Spanner now supports a subset of pg_system_catalog tables and views. Full-text search overview is now generally available. Spanner now lets you create and manage backup schedules.

Cloud Speech-to-Text - Speech-to-Text has updated the Generally Available Chirp 2 model, further enhancing its ASR accuracy and multilingual capabilities.

Cloud SQL SQL Server - Cloud SQL configures the max server memory (mb) flag based on the instance size automatically by limiting the amount of memory that SQL Server can allocate for its internal pools. You can export the transaction logs for point-in-time recovery (PITR) that Cloud SQL stores in Cloud Storage.

Vertex AI - Vector Search Private Service Connect automation Deploying an index with Private Service Connect automation is generally available (GA).

VMware Engine - VMware Engine ve2 nodes are available in Frankfurt, Germany, Europe (europe-west3-b). VMware Engine ve1 nodes are available in Jurong West, Singapore, APAC (asia-southeast1-b).

Workload Manager - Preview: Workload Manager now supports deploying Microsoft SQL Server workloads on Google Cloud.