Google Cloud Platform opens London region

'We want to ensure all businesses can take advantage of all that digital brings,' said Karen Bradley, secretary of state for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Google has opened a new region of its Google Cloud Platform in London, allowing its customers to run applications and store data locally in the city.

The new London region joins Google's previously launched European service based in Belgium. Further European regions in the Netherlands, Frankfurt and Finland are planned.

Giving a short address at the presentation today, Karen Bradley, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, welcomed the launch.

"Google's decision to choose London for its latest Google Cloud Region is another vote of confidence in our world-leading digital economy and proof Britain is open for business," said Bradley. "It's great, but not surprising, to hear they've picked the UK because of the huge demand for this type of service from the nation's firms. Earlier this week the Digital Evolution Index named us among the most innovative digital countries in the world and there has been a record £5.6bn investment in tech in London in the past six months," she added.

Bradley argued that the announcement would be of benefit to businesses and consumers living in rural areas.

"A third of my seat is in the Peak District national park. I want businesses to propser and thrive there. They can do that by using great things like Google Cloud. They can use that to trade globally, something they can't do without [services like] Google Cloud," she said.

The Secretary of State did not stay for questions, so Computing's concern that rural customers could be stymied by the UK's poor performance in its national broadband rollout remains unanswered for now.

Google's UK MD Ronan Harris sounded a defiant note for the UK, claiming a superior record of innovation compared to his US colleagues.

"I like to remind my Californian friends that this is the home of innovation, from Ada Lovelace to Tim Berners-Lee," said Harris. "We have the world's most advanced digital economy. This is the home of digital, and the home of digital innovation."

Google's engineering VP Ben Teynor Sloss introduced the first instance to be created in the new region, describing it as equivalent to breaking a bottle of champagne across the bow of a new boat.

The firm has published a blog post with further details around the launch.