Google is reportedly planning to build a new campus in Silicon Valley which will be situated next to a new facility partly devoted to hardware, at a time where more employees are asking to work from home.

Since 2018, Google has bought $389 million in land in San Jose, California, and recently filed preliminary building proposals show a centre for hardware operations as well as a publicly accessible new tech campus. These will be situated between its current headquarters in Mountain View and its recently approved town-like megacampus in San Jose, as reported by CNBC.

The tech campus, dubbed “Midpoint”, will include five office buildings, reportedly accommodating up to 3,500 employees, and will be built using landscaping and construction updates to existing offices, rather than completely new developments. Currently, there is no timeline for when the project will be completed.

The campus will sit adjacent to three industrial buildings that will house some operations for its hardware division including an “R&D” centre. Google has filed plans to make updates to these buildings, including adding meeting rooms, kitchens, equipment platforms, and a shipping warehouse. The plans reportedly mention “Google Hardware” and “Nest“, and the buildings will also house general supplies and store items like furniture for local campuses, a spokesperson told CNBC.

“The goal of the proposed project is to enhance pedestrian and bicycle safety and connectivity between the buildings and the surrounding community,” Vini Bhargava, a Google real estate and workplace services project executive, said in a preliminary review request.

The campus complies with Google’s aim of opening itself up to its “non-tech” neighbours as concerns of displacement in the San Francisco region continue to grow. The office upgrades also come in line with Google’s plans for more employees to work in offices once the pandemic has ended.

The campus plans also show it will include a new “transit hub” with shuttles, bike parking, and transit passes for employees to reduce single-occupant vehicle trips. It will also contain showers, lockers, and changing rooms to encourage commuting.

There will also be a commuter shuttle service that will cater for employees from the Bay Area, which Bhargava said is “proven to significantly reduce the number of employees that drive alone to work compared to the regional average”.

Last week, Google reportedly approved 85% of 10,000 staff requests to work remotely or relocate when its offices open again. It’s believed the tech giant will ask most of its staff to return to work in their previous office locations but will allow others to carry out their duties elsewhere.

Microsoft has suspended its Windows 365 trial just a day after launch due to heavy demand. 

In a tweet, the company said it was experiencing “significant demand” for the service, which offers easy-access virtual desktops in the cloud accessible via a browser or Microsoft’s Remote Desktop application. It added it reached capacity for Windows 365 trials. 

This morning, Scott Manchester, director of program management for Windows 365, added that the company saw an “unbelievable response.” People should still sign up for the service to be notified when it resumes, he added. 

Microsoft announced Windows 365 on July 14 and took it live Monday, August 2, providing an easy way for smaller businesses to access virtual Windows desktops in the cloud. The service runs on a virtual machine Microsoft calls a Cloud PC, which is available in various configurations up to eight cores with 32GB of RAM. 

Windows 365’s Business Edition is configurable using a self-service portal, and the Enterprise Edition is configurable using Microsoft’s Endpoint Manager tool. The latter also features integrations with Azure Active Directory and Defender for Endpoint. 

Microsoft already offers a desktop as a service (DaaS) option in Azure Virtual Desktop, which the company used to call Windows Virtual Desktop. However, Microsoft sells this on a consumption-based pricing model, plus it’s more complex to administer. Windows 365 is available for a flat monthly fee.

Initial reactions to the service were mixed. “I’ve just had it for a day but it’s already been useful,” tweeted one user in response to Manchester. “Full coding on my iPad.” 

Another user was less impressed. “Is this why my Cloud PC refuses to reset? I’ve been waiting 30 hours for it to reset and no one from support has answered me,” they said. 

It’s still early days for Windows 365, which will receive more features over time. Microsoft promised support for offline working, along with potential GPU options for Cloud PC power users.

Google has reportedly approved 85% of staff requests to work remotely or relocate when its offices open again, as the firm and other companies try to better accommodate employee demands in a post-pandemic working world.

The tech giant is set to ask most of its staff to return to work in their previous office locations, but will let others carry out their duties elsewhere, according to Bloomberg. An internal email to staff highlighted that around 10,000 employees applied to transfer to a new office or work from home.

Fiona Cicconi, Google’s head of human resources, stated in the email that the company rejected around 15% of applicants as their jobs required specialised equipment or face-time with customers.

“And some organisations have made a commitment to invest in key growth sites and are working to build their teams and critical mass in those particular hubs,” Cicconi added. She also said that applicants who were rejected could reapply for remote work or a transfer.

Google’s return to the office policies have angered some of its employees, with CNET reporting last month that Google executive Urs Hölzle told employees he would be working remotely from New Zealand. This reportedly upset some workers as they claimed he had been unsupportive of remote work in the past.

Last week, Google and Facebook announced their employees in the US would need to be fully vaccinated before they return to the office. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in an email to employees that the implementation of the policy would vary depending on local conditions and regulations. The new rule is set to be implemented in the US soon before expanding to other regions in the coming months. The company also announced it would push back its office reopening from 1 September to 18 October.

In February, Google warned that the new “hybrid working” model could affect its productivity and finances. The company was concerned that social distancing measures and hybrid work models would increase costs and potentially impact its “corporate culture”.

Welcome to issue 19 of IT Pro 20/20, our sister title’s digital magazine that distils the most important themes of the previous month into an easy-to-read package.

Maintaining robust cyber security is a difficult task for anyone, but smaller companies are increasingly finding themselves on the front line. At a time when almost a third of cyber attacks now involve a small business, we consider the dangers that this weak link could pose to the wider technology industry, and what steps SMBs and startups need to take to plug the gap.

Keeping with the theme of SMBs and startups, we also look at the tech startups that have thrived during lockdown, using their agility and flexibility to reshape business models and exploit unprecedented demand for services – something that every business can learn from.

The next IT Pro 20/20 will be available on 31 August – previous issues can be found here. If you would like to receive each issue in your inbox as they release, you can subscribe to our mailing list here.

Earlier this year, Google revealed it was testing pre-installed Meet and Chat web apps on Chrome OS and planned to release them to the public. Delivering on that promise, Google announced Meet is now a progressive web app (PWA).

PWAs are responsive websites that look and feel like native mobile apps.

Google further stated the PWA version of Meet has the same features as its app counterpart, except it is easier to use and far more accessible. The Meet icon will now appear on users’ shelves and launchers, providing easy access to video chat. As with other PWAs, Google Meet will update automatically during Chrome updates.

“We’ve launched a new Google Meet standalone web app. This Progressive Web Application (PWA) has all the same features as Google Meet on the web, but as a standalone app it’s easier to find and use, and it streamlines your workflow by eliminating the need to switch between tabs,” explained Google.

Users can find the PWA installation prompt on the top-right corner of Chrome’s address or URL bar. Once downloaded, Meet will load into a standalone window. Users can run Google Meets PWA on Windows, macOS, Chrome OS 73 and up, and Linux.

The Google Meets service is available to anyone with a Google account, including G Suite Basic and Business customers. Administrators can manage PWA access or automatically install progressive web apps for users.

Among the Meet software updates are cross-domain live streaming, live stream captions, and hand raise updates for desktops and laptops.

Google has confirmed the Google Meets PWA will arrive starting today, but some features could take up to 15 business days to appear.

Salesforce-owned MuleSoft has announced it will buy robotic process automation (RPA) company Servicetrace for an undisclosed amount.

The acquisition will complement MuleSoft’s application composition platform, explained executives.

MuleSoft sells Anypoint, an application programming interface (API) development platform for building reusable connections between applications and data so developers can compose applications more easily. Salesforce acquired MuleSoft in 2018.

Servicetrace offers the XceleratorOne RPA tool. RPA helps companies to automate manual processes by copying human activities, cutting down on manual labour and human error.

The Servicetrace tool enables companies to identify processes that would benefit from RPA and model them for automation. Servicetrace says that the tool can automate long, complex processes and connect artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for automated decisions. It also organises those automations across a company and enables managers to assess the return on investment from automated processes.

The RPA product will integrate with Salesforce’s Einstein Automate solution, which already handles automation tasks for the company’s clients.

“Our platform makes it easy to unlock and integrate data from anywhere — wherever it resides — and manage, monitor, secure, and govern that data at scale,” said MuleSoft CEO Brent Hayward in an announcement.

“MuleSoft will now also make it easy for line of business and knowledge workers to automate business processes and dramatically increase efficiency and speed.”

Servicetrace also offers automated software testing tools and application performance monitoring tools that use bots to monitor users’ experience across complex software architectures.

The acquisition will close by the third quarter of Salesforce’s fiscal year, ending October 31, 2021.

Rishi Sunak has warned young workers against falling into the trap of permanent remote working, suggesting that going into the office can be beneficial to building their careers.

Speaking about his own experiences with LinkedIn News, the chancellor said that working from home wouldn’t have allowed him to build strong relationships and argued that video conferencing is not an adequate substitute.

He also warned against remote working becoming the norm for businesses in the UK.

“I was telling them that the mentors I found when I first started my job I still talk to and they have been helpful to me even after we have gone in different ways,” he said, according to the Times.

“I doubt I would have had those strong relationships if I was doing my internship or my first bit of my career over [Microsoft] Teams and Zoom.

“That’s why I think for young people, in particular, being able to physically be in an office is valuable.”

Before becoming a politician, the chancellor enjoyed a career in finance, including working for Goldman Sachs.

He added that the government has stopped saying people should actively work from home, and has left it up to businesses to figure out the right approach.

In terms of a return to the physical workplace, Sunak said it will be gradual, cautious, and careful, but that there should be an eventual full return to normal working.

His comments echo the government’s longstanding messaging around remote working, with government ministers and the prime minister, Boris Johnson, periodically encouraging workers to return to offices.

In Autumn last year, the government embarked on a public messaging campaign for workers to abandon remote working and return to the workplace.

This was immediately prior to a significant rise in COVID-19 cases and a subsequent lockdown. This was largely spurred by the loss in economic activity due to workers not being out and about in town and city centres during the day.

Contrary to the government’s messaging, many office-based businesses, particularly those in the tech industry, have embraced remote working and are enjoying the benefits of cost reductions and productivity gains. This has been made possible due to an array of technologies such as cloud computing and virtual private networks (VPNs).

Most workers, too, have enjoyed the flexibility that remote working brings, with research conducted in August last year suggesting 90% of Brits wanted to continue working remotely.

However, a significant proportion of office-based workers have equally expressed a desire for a return to in-person working, however, due to the benefits of in-person collaboration and the office culture that’s missing from home-based working.

It’s why many businesses are opting for a hybrid model, which borrows from both remote and in-person working to create a flexible approach that most employees can get behind. KPMG, for example, has offered staff a ‘four-day fortnight’ as part of its remote working strategy, while the Bank of England has told staff to come into the office one day a week.