Google Cloud has announced plans to expand its data residency offerings in the United Kingdom, allowing organisations to process machine learning data for its Gemini 1.5 Flash AI model within the country's borders.
Daniël Rood, Head of Google Cloud AI in the UK, revealed this initiative at the Google Cloud Next London Summit. Starting next month, UK organisations across all sectors, including the public sector, will have the option to both store their data at-rest, and conduct machine learning processing for Gemini 1.5 Flash entirely within the UK.
This move builds upon Google's previous announcement from last year, which allowed UK organisations using Google Cloud's generative AI capabilities to choose to store their data at-rest in the UK. This included Generative AI on Vertex AI - Codey and Imagen models, as well as Text Embeddings and Multimodal Embeddings APIs.
Google has made two key pledges regarding data residency. First, they guarantee that customer data will only reside in the exact locations designated by the client, as outlined in their Cloud Locations Page and Service Specific Terms. Second, all machine learning processing of customer data, including Gemini inference and deployment of any other ML models leading up to output generation, will occur within the same specific region or multi-region where the data is stored.
Rood noted the remarkable global surge in interest for Google Cloud's generative AI, particularly in the UK. He stated, "We recognise that certain industries, clients, and specific use cases necessitate stricter data residency within their own regions to fully harness the potential of these tools."
For those seeking more information, Google has directed interested parties to explore their data residency offerings, gain insights into their AI development process through their white paper on their Approach to AI Governance.