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Today at Google Cloud Next, the company made it clear:  They want to be the platform for your Windows applications.  In the keynote message, Google’s Brian Stevens announced that they were releasing a wide set of tools to help enterprises migrate their Windows-based servers and other solutions to Google Cloud Platform.  The company already has SQL Server Enterprise and Windows Server Core in Google Compute Engine but they certainly upped the ante today.  Now on GCP, you have SQL Server Enterprise plus a beta of .NET for both Google App Engine and Google Container Engine.  Further, things like Active Directory and other Windows-based server solutions can now be migrated to GCP.

The move is aimed at making GCP a solid base by which you can run your Windows-based solutions without having to actually have a physical server sitting on your premise, yet keeping the Windows solutions available to your enterprise.  In other words, to use GCP, you don’t necessarily have to use Google solutions.

Google Hangouts as we know it today is radically changing.  Not only is the app getting a major UI makeover, it is being split into two separate apps as Google repositions the app for the Enterprise.  I’m attending Google Cloud Next this week and the announcements around Google Hangouts are pretty exciting.  First, the app is being split into two distinct apps:  Hangouts Meet which is designed to be a collaboration and conferencing solution, and Hangouts Chat which is designed to be a Google Drive integrated chat and collaboration tool.  Together, along G Suite, provide a seamless way for people both in a company and outside of it to meet, collaborate and share information while removing the challenge of getting people involved with a simple one-tap ability to join a call.

The changes are aimed at cutting down the friction that enterprises have when it comes to setting up meetings and collaboration where content can be easily and freely shared.  These, tied to the new Jamboard whiteboard solution will allow the free flowing of content and information amongst team members.

The latest Android Distribution report has been released by Google and it shows that Android Nougat made a healthy 1.5% increase in install base over the February report.  The bump means that the latest version of Android is now on 2.8% of devices that high the Play Store for the week ending March 6, 2017 but by comparison, it is still well behind the likes of Marshmallow and Lollipop.  The increase represents the largest growth version for the report period and is reflective of the significant number of devices that have had their Nougat update come to them over the course of the past few weeks.

Android Lollipop remains the leader as far as install base is concerned, coming in at 34.5% which is a drop of .4% over the February report.  Marshmallow is second at 31.3%.  That is an increase of .6% for the 6.0 build of Android.  Android KitKat saw the largest drop at 1.1% but remains on some 20.8% of devices that came to the Play Store.

The official Formula 1 app for Android has received a nice update this week ahead of the start of the 2017 championship in a few weeks time.  The update brings a significantly improved UI to the app with bottom navigation buttons and a brighter overall look to the app.  All of the content that you have had in past seasons is still there but there are a load of new notifications you can sign up for within the app, including the current pre-season testing that is going on in Barcelona.

The Formula 1 app is a subscription-based app.  For free, you get live timing at each race, post-race interviews, video highlights and standings.  The $2.99 per month subscription gets you access to all of that plus timing & scoring for all sessions (practice & qualifying), in-car audio, in-race commentary and full 3D maps that you can view the race in action.