Lakshmi Sharma, Director, Product Management, Networking, Google Cloud | @iLakshmiS, sits with John Furrier & Dave Vellante for Google Cloud Next 2018 from the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. #GoogleNext18 #theCUBE https://siliconangle.com/2018/07/31/google-makes-containers-first-class-citizen-in-hybrid-cloud-googlenext18/ Google makes containers ‘first-class citizen’ in hybrid cloud Google Cloud Platform is signaling hybrid-cloud readiness with its latest product announcements and partnerships. The state-of-the-art network its built over the years is coming in handy for tasks like hurling containers (a virtualized method for running distributed applications) from one environment to another. Google now turns to networking legacy Cisco Systems Inc. to bring its cloud offerings to enterprises. “Networking is an inherit part of a lot of that hybrid story that we talk about,” said Lakshmi Sharma (pictured), head of product management, networking, at Google Cloud. Connectivity, service discovery, and load balancing, in particular, are critical to smooth hybrid-cloud operations, she explained. The Google Kubernetes Engine for containerized app management at scale plays into a lot of Google’s hybrid-centric announcements, like Google Cloud Services platforms. GKE enables hybrid networking via Google Cloud VPN (virtual private network). Sharma spoke with John Furrier (@furrier) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Google Cloud Next event in San Francisco. They discussed Google LLC’s efforts to build its in-house networking into its product offerings. (* Disclosure below.) New native networking, load balancing for containers Google has announced networking capabilities that simplify the use of containers. Ingress offers native load balancing and networking for containers. “For the first time, I would say, from a product-offering perspective across the board from any provider, you would see load balancing working natively for containers,” Sharma said. With Ingress, Google is making good on its promise to make containers a “first-class citizen in the cloud,” she added. GCP is also doubling down on its bid to win enterprise customers with its Cisco partnership. Chief information officers at enterprises can appreciate the value of advanced network engineering, Sharma pointed out. In fact, retail chain Target Corp. recently chose Google as its cloud provider. When CIO Mike McNamara was asked how the company arrived at the decision, he said, “My engineers made the decision,” according to Sharma. Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Google Cloud Next event. (* Disclosure: Google Cloud sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Google nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)