GCP Release Notes: December 18, 2025

AlloyDB for PostgreSQL

Feature

Managed connection pooling is now generally available (GA). This feature optimizes resource usage to improve workload scalability and reliability. It is compatible with the AlloyDB Auth Proxy and Language Connectors. For more information, see Configure managed connection pooling.

Feature

AlloyDB database performance snapshot reports now include a SQL Report section, which lists the top 50 queries by total elapsed time, read I/O, and standard deviation of elapsed time. This helps you identify and optimize resource-intensive queries.

App Hub

Feature

App Hub now lets you register multiple resources at once in the Google Cloud console to simplify and accelerate the application creation process.

The following are key features of this update:

• Combined application creation and registration: The application creation and resource registration workflows are now merged into a single process. You can register up to 10 services and workloads to an application at a time.
• Streamlined resource registration: You can now register multiple services and workloads to an application in a single operation, directly from the application creation page. This update reduces the time and effort required to set up your applications.
• Copied attribute and owner information: You now have the option to copy attributes and owner information from an application to all the resources you’re registering. This feature does not apply to shared services.

For more information, see Register existing resources to an application.

BigQuery

Feature

You can now use the BigQuery Data Transfer Service to transfer data from blob storage sources, such as Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Azure Blob Storage, and Cloud Storage, into BigLake Iceberg tables in BigQuery. This feature is in Preview.

Feature

The BigQuery Data Transfer Service can now transfer data from the following data sources to BigQuery:

• Klaviyo
• HubSpot

These features are in Preview.

Buildpacks

Feature

Support for osonly24 runtime is in Preview. The OS only runtime lets you deploy Go applications from source, and binaries such as Dart and Go. For more information, see Configure the OS only runtime.

Cloud Run

Feature

Support for osonly24 runtime is in Preview. The OS only runtime lets you deploy Go applications from source, and binaries such as Dart and Go. For more information, see Configure the OS only runtime.

Generative AI on Vertex AI

Feature

Save and share prompts in Vertex AI Studio: The prompt sharing feature no longer needs to be enabled. You can share prompts without asking your administrator to first enable the prompt sharing feature. For more information, see Save and share prompts.

Google Kubernetes Engine

Change

(2025-R52) Version updates

GKE cluster versions have been updated.

New versions available for upgrades and new clusters.

The following versions are now available for new GKE clusters, and for manual control plane upgrades and node upgrades for existing clusters. For more information about versioning and upgrades, see GKE versioning and support and About GKE cluster upgrades.

Security

(2025-R52) Security updates

This release includes new GKE versions that use updated Container-Optimized OS images. These updated images are cumulative, incorporating security fixes from all Container-Optimized OS versions released since the previous GKE release.

To identify the specific vulnerabilities that were resolved in each updated Container-Optimized OS image, see the Security release notes for that image. The following table includes links to the release notes for each updated Container-Optimized OS image:

GKE version	Container-Optimized OS version	Details
1.34.1-gke.3759000	cos-125-19216-104-45	cos-125-19216-104-45 release notes

Change

GKE Standard clusters enrolled in the Regular channel now support Autopilot features. Autopilot features include the container-optimized compute platform and fully managed nodes, letting you use Autopilot’s advantages without migrating to a dedicated Autopilot cluster.

To use Autopilot features in Standard clusters, use either of the following configurations:

• Enroll a cluster in the Regular channel with GKE version 1.34.1-gke.1829001 or later.
• Enroll a cluster in the Rapid channel with GKE version 1.33.1-gke.1107000 or later.

For more information, see Run workloads in Autopilot mode in Standard clusters.

Change

(2025-R52) Version updates

• The following versions are now available in the Extended channel:
  • 1.28.15-gke.3251000
  • 1.29.15-gke.2585000
  • 1.30.14-gke.1820000

Change

(2025-R52) Version updates

• The following versions are now available:
  • 1.31.14-gke.1114000
  • 1.32.9-gke.1675000
  • 1.33.5-gke.2019000
  • 1.34.0-gke.2201000
  • 1.34.1-gke.2541000
  • 1.34.1-gke.3759000
• The following node versions are now available:
  • 1.28.15-gke.3251000
  • 1.29.15-gke.2585000
  • 1.30.14-gke.1820000
  • 1.31.14-gke.1114000
  • 1.32.9-gke.1675000
  • 1.33.5-gke.2019000
  • 1.34.0-gke.2201000
  • 1.34.1-gke.3759000

Change

(2025-R52) Version updates

• The following versions are now available in the Rapid channel:
  • 1.31.14-gke.1114000
  • 1.32.9-gke.1675000
  • 1.33.5-gke.2019000
  • 1.34.0-gke.2201000
  • 1.34.1-gke.2541000
  • 1.34.1-gke.3759000

Change

(2025-R52) Version updates

There are no new releases in the Regular channel.

Change

(2025-R52) Version updates

There are no new releases in the Stable channel.

Guest Environment

Fixed

Version 20251218.00 of the guest agent is now available for Windows only. This version includes the following fixes:

• Fixes a crash loop in VM extensions due to a race condition where the guest agent manager service can sometimes try to connect to the extension before it is able to create and bind to its unix socket.
• Fixes an issue where the core plugin is not creating required registry keys before attempting to write to them.

Memorystore for Valkey

Feature

Memorystore for Valkey supports organization policy constraints. By using these constraints, you can enforce CMEK protection for your instances and limit which Cloud Key Management Service (KMS) keys you can use for this protection. This feature is Generally Available.

Oracle Database@Google Cloud

Feature

Oracle Database@Google Cloud adds the following regions and zones for its services:

• Exadata Database Service on Exascale infrastructure

  • northamerica-northeast1-a-r1 (Montréal, Québec, Canada)
  • us-east4-a-r2 (Northern Virginia, North America)

• Base Database Service

  • northamerica-northeast1-a-r1 (Montréal, Québec, Canada)
  • us-east4-a-r2 (Northern Virginia, North America)

For a full list of supported locations, see Supported regions and zones.

Vertex AI Agent Builder

Feature

Cloud API Registry is available in the Google Cloud console in Preview. Use Cloud API Registry in the Google Cloud console to view and manage the MCP servers and tools your agent has access to.

Source: Google Cloud Platform