Google is expanding its cloud platform into a new region in Italy, finding a home in Turin. Milan is slowly becoming the “Silicon Valley of Italy” with Amazon Web Services (AWS) opening its Italian region in 2020, and Oracle opening a Milan region in 2021. Microsoft announced it had plans to position itself in Milan, however, it has yet to open. Google added its expansion to Milan with a partnership with Telecom Italia (TIM) in 2022. TIM would be the first major organization to develop in Turin. A cloud region, which the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) will be setting up in Turin, is a collection of data centers that provide customers with faster access to data. This is an effort to help Italy transform into a global hub for cloud computing.
Elio Schiavo, TIM’s chief enterprise and innovative solutions officer said, "Our partnership with Google Cloud is important for the digitization process of companies, public administrations, and citizens.” He continued, “The two regions represent an important result for this collaboration and are a distinctive asset enabling low latency, connectivity, and data sovereignty functionalities. It is therefore a strategic infrastructure that will combine large economic benefits with important advantages for the entire industrial sector on a national scale."
There haven’t been many details shared about the new expansion. Google has only revealed that there are three available zones that help provide the usual range for GCP services.
An announcement from Google said, “This new region joins the recently opened Google Cloud region in Milan to provide highly available and sustainable cloud services with data sovereignty and residency functionality to meet the needs of the Italian economy.” With Google Cloud expanding into Milan and now Turin, it is estimated that Italy could see 1.9 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in market growth in a three year period.
The expansion of these services into Turin allows many businesses to continue using the GCP throughout Italy. Such is the case with the Italian banking firm Intesa Sanpaolo. The bank has stated, "With the availability of the Turin Google Cloud region, that follows the one of Milan, the path that will allow Intesa Sanpaolo to fully exploit the potential of cloud technology and further accelerate the process of digitization of its services, is completed.”
In 2022, Google launched GCP regions in Milan, Italy; Madrid, Spain; Columbus, Ohio; and Dallas, Texas.
AJ Forrisi
Assistant Editor for America Domani, AJ Forrisi is a Brooklyn-based writer and photographer. His work focuses on food, travel, sports, landscapes, and urban scenes. You can find him on Instagram @aj.photo.works.