NATO will deploy Google Distributed Cloud, an air-gapped version of Google Cloud on-premise.
Under a multi-million dollar contract with NATO's Communication and Information Agency (NCIA), Google will deliver sovereign cloud services to NATO for edge computing and AI use cases.
GDC is a sovereign cloud in a box that’s physically disconnected from the internet but includes everything to deploy virtual machines, run workloads and use services such as Vertex AI.
Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) was a big theme at Google Public Sector's annual conference in Washington DC in October. GDC was being used in public sector deployments, defense use cases and sovereign data and cloud implementations. Typically, GDC was being used in edge locations with limited to no connectivity and hardened environments.
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In a statement, GDC will support NATO Communication and Information Agency's Joint Analysis, Training and Education Centre, which is using the infrastructure to modernize and manage classified workloads.
With GDC, NATO will maintain data residency and operational controls as well as autonomy. NATO has been building an interoperable communications and information systems architecture that can bring together 12 allied nations and 36 NATO entities quickly and at scale. The goal is to enable forces to operate together on the fly.
Constellation Research's Holger Mueller said:
"Google Cloud has for a long time invested in its next-generation computing -platform - originally Anthos - now Google Distributed Cloud (GDC). The key selection criteria for a next-gen computing platform is workload portability between public clouds and on premises. The required characteristic is identicality. The tech stack in the supported deployment is identical, portable and has investment protection of code assets. With Gemini and Vertex AI running on GDC, Google sets itself apart from the other next-gen computing vendors, and is therefore very well secured for air gapped solutions required for military workloads."
