Google Cloud NEXT: Intel brings performance, flexibility, and security while enhancing optimal TCO

Co-Author: Bharat Kulkarni, Sr. Director Global Product & GTM, Intel Team Alphabet, Intel

Intel is excited to partner with Google Cloud at Google NEXT 25, where we are showcasing new and expanded solutions designed to deliver superior performance, and increased workload flexibility, all of which are designed to enhance your total cost of ownership (TCO).

First, the Highlights

• The general-purpose instance, C4 on Google Cloud, which is first to market among US hyperscalers, expands to Intel® Xeon® 6 processors (codenamed Granite Rapids), offering new capabilities, more shapes, and greater flexibility.
• Introducing M4, the first memory-optimized instance built on 5th Gen Intel® Xeon® scalable processors (codenamed: Emerald Rapids), bringing significant performance and rightsizing capabilities for your memory-intensive workloads.
• The Z3 storage-optimized instance expands to 11 smaller shapes and Z3.Metal leverages the Titanium Offload System for enhanced storage optimization.
• 18 new node shapes for Google Cloud VMware Engine, bringing the total to 26.
• Confidential Space powered by Intel® TDX to process sensitive data.
• Hardware-based security through Confidential GKE Nodes on C3 powered by Intel TDX. (Generally available in Q2.)

Now...Let's Talk Specifics

Reap the Rewards with C4 VMs expanding on Intel® Xeon® 6 Processors

The C4 Machine Series will expand to the latest Intel® Xeon® 6 processor (codenamed: Granite Rapids). This expansion delivers new capabilities, more shape options, and greater flexibility, enabling customers to elevate the performance and scalability of their most critical applications. Designed to deliver industry-leading performance for a wide range of demanding workloads such as databases, analytics, gaming, real-time platforms, and inference.

• C4 with Titanium Local SSD: C4 on Intel Xeon 6 processors will now offer new VM shapes featuring Google’s latest innovation in local storage: high-performance Titanium Local SSDs. This cutting-edge storage technology is designed to meet the needs of the most I/O-intensive applications, delivering enhanced performance with up to 35% lower local SSD latency,(1) further accelerating workloads.
• C4 Bare Metal: Customers seeking maximum control and flexibility can now leverage C4 bare metal instances. These new offerings provide up to 35% better performance compared to previous-generation bare metal instances.(1)
• Larger C4 Shapes: To provide greater choice and scalability, we are enabling new, larger C4 VM shapes. These new shapes feature higher frequencies, larger cache sizes, and up to 2.2 TB of memory, and feature the highest frequency of any Google Compute Engine VM – up to 4.2 GHz. This enables databases, data analytics, and other memory-bound or license-constrained workloads to scale effectively.

Sign up for the C4 Private Preview.

Looking for a Memory-Optimized VM? Meet M4, the latest memory-optimized Virtual Machine

The first memory-optimized instance built on 5th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors (codenamed Emerald Rapids) has arrived. Google Cloud’s latest generation of memory-optimized instances, the M4 virtual machine family, is designed for in-memory analytics and other memory-intensive workloads. M4 offers a significant performance improvement versus leading cloud offerings with similar shapes.

M4 offers increased flexibility to right size your database workloads, with a 13.3:1 and 26.6:1 Memory / Core ratio, for instance shapes ranging from 744GB to 3TB. M4 offers 2x the memory to vCPU ratio. M4 offers great options for customers looking to upgrade their memory-optimized infrastructure, with several new shapes in addition to the comprehensive memory-optimized VM portfolio. M4 instances offer up to 65% better price performance than M3 instances.(1)

Ideal Support for SAP

Intel Xeon processors' performance and scalability make them ideal for demanding SAP applications. The new memory-optimized M4 instances from Google Cloud are certified for in-memory SAP HANA workloads from 768GB to 3TB and SAP NetWeaver Application Server. M4 with 5th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors outperforms the previous generation by 2.25x(1) more SAPs, marking a substantial improvement in overall performance. Intel's hardware-based security and data protection and M4's ability to be customized to meet specific SAP workload requirements allow you to manage costs and ensure optimal performance efficiently.

New Storage Options with Z3-highmem and Z3.metal, VMs Addressing Specialized Industry Solutions

Google Cloud’s Z3 instance on 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors (codenamed Sapphire Rapids) expands its Z3-highmem Storage Optimized offerings from two to eleven, adding new smaller VM shapes, ranging from 3TB to 18TB Titanium SSD. This extension caters to diverse storage needs, scaling from 2 to 11 VMs, ensuring flexibility for various workloads.

Google Cloud has also introduced Z3.metal and Z3 high-memory shapes, leveraging the Titanium Offload System for enhanced storage optimization. Google Cloud’s new bare metal instance, Z3h-highmem-192-metal, is built on the Titanium Offload System and debuts 72TB of Titanium SSD in a single Compute Engine Machine shape. This shape supports custom hypervisors, hyperconverged infrastructure, and advanced monitoring. Customers can implement advanced CPU monitoring or tightly controlled process execution by directly accessing the physical servers’ CPU. Industries such as Security, CI/CD, HPC, and Financial Services can accommodate workloads that can’t run in virtualized environments due to licensing and vendor support requirements.

Sign up for preview access.

Google Cloud VMware Engine Changes the Game with 18 Additional Nodes

Google Cloud VMware Engine is one of the fastest ways to lift and transform your existing VMware estate into Google Cloud. Utilizing Intel Xeon processors already enables seamless migration and operation of VMware applications in the cloud. Now, there are 18 additional node shapes, bringing the total number of node shapes across VMware Engine v1 and v2 to 26. Now, you have the industry’s widest range of options to shape your capacity to your workloads’ needs and optimize your TCO.

Added Security Leveraging Intel® TDX

Google Cloud and Intel are committed to ensuring customers access the latest security technologies, such as Intel® Trust Domain Extensions (Intel® TDX). Intel TDX is a CPU feature and confidential computing technology that protects data and keeps workloads encrypted in use.

Support for Intel TDX has now been added to two products:

• Confidential GKE Nodes: A type of Google Kubernetes Engine that leverages hardware-based security features to protect data in memory and provide additional protection against cyberattacks. Generally available with Intel TDX in Q2 2025.
• Confidential Space: A secure, isolated environment for processing sensitive data, generally available with Intel TDX now.

Visit Intel at Google NEXT 25 Booth 3150 to test drive Intel Xeon 6 processors and see our AI, Compute, and Security demos!

(1) https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/compute/delivering-new-compute-innovations-and-offerings

Notices and Disclaimers

Performance varies by use, configuration, and other factors. Learn more on the Performance Index site.
Performance results are based on testing as of dates shown in configurations and may not reflect all publicly available ​updates. See backup for configuration details. No product or component can be absolutely secure.
Your costs and results may vary.
Intel technologies may require enabled hardware, software, or service activation.
© Intel Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo, and other Intel marks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.