Today, Google introducing Cloud Functions (2nd gen) into public preview, Google Cloud’s next-generation Functions-as-a-Service product. This next generation version of Cloud Functions comes with an advanced feature set giving you more powerful infrastructure, advanced control over performance and scalability, more control around the functions runtime and triggers from over 90 event sources. Further, the infrastructure is powered by Google Cloud’s cutting-edge serverless and eventing infrastructure, Cloud Run and Eventarc.

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Infrastructure that meets your workloads’ needs

Cloud Functions adds a range of new capabilities for 2nd gen functions, such as concurrency (up to 1,000 concurrent requests per function instance), larger instances (16 GB memory and 4 vCPUs) and longer processing time for HTTP functions (up to 60 mins) and minimum instances (prewarmed instances). 

  • Longer request processing – Run your 2nd gen cloud functions for up to 60 mins for HTTP functions, making it easier to run longer-request workloads such as processing large streams of data from Cloud Storage or BigQuery.
  • Larger instances – Leverage up to 16GB of RAM and 4 vCPUs on 2nd gen cloud functions, allowing larger in-memory, compute-intensive and more parallel workloads.
  • Concurrency – Leverage up to 1000 concurrent requests with a single function, minimizing cold starts and improving latency and cost when scaling.
  • Minimum instances – Provide for pre-warmed instances to cut your cold starts and make sure the bootstrap time of your application does not impact application performance.
  • Traffic splitting – 2nd gen cloud functions support multiple revisions of your functions, splitting traffic between different revisions and rolling your function back to a prior version.
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Broader event coverage and CloudEvents support

2nd gen cloud functions now include native support for Eventarc, which brings over 90+ event sources from direct sources and Cloud Audit logs (e.g., BigQuery, Cloud SQL, Cloud Storage, Firebase…). And of course, Cloud Functions still supports events from custom sources by publishing to Pub/Sub directly. These event-driven functions adhere to industry-standard CloudEvents, regardless of the source, to ensure a consistent developer experience.

New developer experience

Cloud Functions features an enhanced UI, customizable dashboard, improved developer experience and accessibility updates. A new seamless onboarding experience makes it easy to quickly develop and deploy your 1st gen and 2nd gen functions in one place. 

A deployment progress tracker navigates through the process of the 2nd gen function deployment and helps to spot the errors associated with each step. The UI also simplifies integrations with Eventarc using new menus and badges to help you find information about your function.

Portability based on OSS buildpacks and Functions Frameworks

2nd gen functions are built using open-source buildpacks and Functions Frameworks, giving you the portability to run your functions anywhere. 

Check out the new Cloud Functions

We are excited to see what you build with Cloud Functions. You can learn more about Cloud Functions here and get started using Quickstarts: Cloud Functions.

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