AlloyDB for PostgreSQL
Feature
AlloyDB enhanced backups are generally available (GA). You can now select the Enhanced tier during cluster creation, manage your project-level backups with tiered tabs, and delete an enhanced backup. For more information, see Manage enhanced backups.
Apigee Integrated Portal
Announcement
On March 5, 2026 we released a new version of the Apigee integrated portal.
Feature
You can now publish APIs using AsyncAPI documents to render documentation for asynchronous APIs in your portal. For more information, see Publishing your APIs.
BigQuery
Feature
You can now use an alternate syntax when you call the
VECTOR_SEARCH function
to improve query performance when you search for a single vector. This feature
is in Preview.
Change
An updated version of the Simba ODBC driver for BigQuery is now available.
Cloud Storage
Feature
You can now analyze object data and metadata from your Storage Insights
datasets by using BigQuery ObjectRef functions. The ref column in the
dataset contains a reference to the Cloud Storage object which you can use with
ObjectRef functions to analyze object content. For example, you can build
queries to help detect sensitive information in documents or to generate image
descriptions. For more information, see
Analyze object data and metadata using BigQuery.
Compute Engine
Issue
For Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating system, VM Manager provides vulnerability scanning results based on the latest minor version for each major version released. If your VM runs an earlier minor version of RHEL, you might get inaccurate results in the vulnerability reports. For more information about supported operating systems for vulnerability reports, see supported operating systems.
Firestore
Feature
Firestore Enterprise edition now supports Native mode in all supported regions. For a list of supported regions, see Locations.
Google Distributed Cloud (software only) for VMware
Change
Google Distributed Cloud (software only) for VMware V2 (Advanced Clusters) versions 1.31 and earlier were missing a configuration step in the node startup script that defined the Docker default bridge IP range. As a result, Docker defaulted to using the 172.17.0.0/16 (and in some cases 172.16.0.0/16) address range.
If this default range overlaps with customer network infrastructure, connectivity failures during cluster creation or operation can occur.
This issue has been resolved. The Docker default bridge IP for cluster nodes in advanced clusters is now explicitly set to 169.254.123.1/24.
Announcement
Google Distributed Cloud (software only) for VMware 1.32.900-gke.60 is now available for download. To upgrade, see Upgrade clusters. Google Distributed Cloud 1.32.900-gke.60 runs on Kubernetes v1.32.11-gke.200.
If you are using a third-party storage vendor, check the Google Distributed Cloud-ready storage partners document to make sure the storage vendor has already passed the qualification for this release.
After a release, it takes approximately 7 to 14 days for the version to become available for use with GKE On-Prem API clients: the Google Cloud console, the gcloud CLI, and Terraform.
Google Distributed Cloud (software only) for bare metal
Announcement
Google Distributed Cloud (software only) for bare metal 1.32.900-gke.60 is now available for download. To upgrade, see Upgrade clusters. Google Distributed Cloud for bare metal 1.32.900-gke.60 runs on Kubernetes v1.32.11-gke.200.
After a release, it takes approximately 7 to 14 days for the version to become available for installations or upgrades with the GKE On-Prem API clients: the Google Cloud console, the gcloud CLI, and Terraform.
If you use a third-party storage vendor, check the Google Distributed Cloud-ready storage partners document to make sure the storage vendor has already passed the qualification for this release of Google Distributed Cloud for bare metal.
Google Kubernetes Engine
Feature
The H4D machine series, designed for high performance computing (HPC) workloads, is generally available for GKE clusters. Based on 5th generation AMD EPYC Turin with Cloud RDMA 200 Gbps networking, H4D VMs offer 192 cores (SMT disabled), up to 1,488 GB of memory, and 3,750 GiB of Local SSD. H4D is optimized for tightly-coupled applications that scale across multiple nodes and offers RDMA-enabled 200 Gbps networking.
You can use H4D with GKE clusters in Standard, or with the Performance compute class in Autopilot. For more information, see Run high performance computing (HPC) workloads with H4D.
Feature
GKE Inference Quickstart (GIQ) now offers recommendations for distributed AI inference. This enables you to deploy optimized, full configurations for advanced models, such as the Qwen and gpt-oss model families, on NVIDIA GPUs and Cloud TPUs.
This release introduces GKE Inference Gateway by integrating llm-d inference scheduling. You can select optimized configurations for workloads like Advanced Customer Support, Code Completion, and Deep Research. This tunes your infrastructure to meet the specific latency and throughput requirements of these applications.
For more information, see Analyze model serving performance and costs with Inference Quickstart.
Feature
You can use automated disk type selection for Hyperdisk volumes on GKE. This feature allows GKE to automatically select the most appropriate disk type based on the machine type of the node where your workload is scheduled.
With this feature, you can create a single StorageClass that supports clusters with mixed VM generations. For example, GKE can provision Hyperdisk on compatible instances (such as C3 or C4) while automatically falling back to Persistent Disk on other generations.
For more information, see Automated disk type selection.
Google SecOps
Announcement
Google Agentic SOC Trial
There will be a no-cost trial for the Google SecOps Triage Investigative Agent (TIN) from April 1, 2026 to June 30, 2026. TIN is an agentic AI feature for Google SecOps that helps automate security investigations. For more information about the trial, see Google Agentic SOC Trial details. For more information about TIN, see Use Triage and Investigation Agent to investigate alerts.
Guest Environment
Feature
Version 20260228.00 of the guest agent is
now available for Debian 12, AlmaLinux 9, CentOS Stream 9, Oracle Linux 9,
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, and Rock Linux 9. To review the features and fixes
included in version 20260228.00 of the guest agent, see the
March 2, 2026 release notes.
Looker
Fixed
An issue has been fixed where comma-separated negative filters could be incorrectly interpreted with OR logic in the filter UI. This feature now performs as expected.
Feature
The Embed Conversational Analytics feature is now generally available. In Looker 26.4, the following support has been added:
- Embedding Conversational Analytics is now supported on Looker (Google Cloud core).
- The Looker embed SDK now supports embedded Conversational Analytics.
- Embedded themes are now partially supported with embedded Conversational Analytics. All of the General options for themes are supported. All other theme options are not supported.
Fixed
An issue has been fixed where dashboards that used ClickHouse connections could fail to load with a ClassCastException error. This feature now performs as expected.
Announcement
Looker 26.4 is expected to include the following changes, features, and fixes:
- Expected Looker (original) deployment start: Sunday, March 8, 2026
- Expected Looker (original) final deployment and download available: Thursday, March 19, 2026
- Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) deployment start: Monday, March 16, 2026
- Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) final deployment: Monday, March 23, 2026
Fixed
An issue has been fixed where entering Japanese characters into advanced filters could add extra characters. This feature now performs as expected.
Fixed
An issue has been fixed where Looker could fail to recognize non-numeric values in conditional formatting rules for single value visualizations. This feature now performs as expected.
Fixed
An issue has been fixed where Looker would prevent users from saving changes on the Content Guardrails admin settings page. This feature now performs as expected.
Feature
Custom tooltips are now generally available and supported for more visualization types. Custom tooltips let you configure tooltips within the Explore visualization editor by using a combination of UI settings and an HTML editor that supports Liquid templating. Custom tooltips are supported for most visualization types except the following:
- Donut multiples charts
- Word cloud charts
- Static map (regions) charts
- Static maps (points) charts
- Charts made using the Chart Config Editor (with the exception of Sankey charts)
- Custom visualizations
Learn more about custom tooltips.
Fixed
An issue has been fixed where LookML dashboards could not be created using the ProjectFile API endpoint. This feature now performs as expected.
Fixed
An issue has been fixed where conditional formatting rules could fail to be saved. This feature now performs as expected.
Fixed
An issue has been fixed where pivoted columns could fail to be sorted correctly when content was being downloaded. This feature now performs as expected.
Fixed
An issue has been fixed where selecting the Expand tables option during a PDF download or schedule could cause the tables to shrink instead of expand. This feature now performs as expected.
Fixed
An issue has been fixed where Looker could fail to retain sorts when content from a drill modal was being downloaded. This feature now performs as expected.
Feature
The Labs page in the Admin panel has been renamed Preview Features. The new page organizes in-progress features into two categories to provide better clarity on their status:
- Preview features: These features have a planned path to general availability.
- Labs features: These experimental features may be removed from the product at any time, and issues may not be resolved.
Your enablement status for each feature has not changed. For more information, see the Preview Features documentation page.
Feature
Now generally available, Looker has full support for connections with AlloyDB for PostgreSQL. When you create a connection in Looker, you can now select Google Cloud AlloyDB for PostgreSQL from the Dialect drop-down menu. This update does not affect existing AlloyDB connections that were created using the PostgreSQL 9.5+ option in the Dialect menu.
Fixed
An issue has been fixed where dashboard table tiles could fail to display the scroll bar and total row. This feature now performs as expected.
Feature
Tabbed dashboards are now generally available. Dashboard editors can use tabs to organize dashboard content across multiple tabs within a single dashboard. Adding tabs to dashboards lets you do the following:
- Better organize content: Group related visualizations and tiles into separate tabs.
- Improve data storytelling: Guide viewers through different aspects of your data in a structured way.
- Enhance performance: Load only the tiles on an active tab, potentially speeding up initial dashboard load times.
- Reduce clutter: Consolidate multiple related analyses into a single dashboard.
Feature
Dashboard filter enhancements are now generally available. Dashboard filter enhancements include the following improvements:
- Persistent filter suggestion drop-down: Filter suggestion drop-downs remain open for easier multi-selection for tag list and advanced filter type filters.
- Select or deselect all filter values: Lets users select or deselect all values in tag list and advanced filter type filters.
- Limit condition controls for advanced filters: Lets dashboard creators limit the condition options that are available to users for advanced filters.
- Enable Include custom filter values by default for boards: Admins can choose to enable Include custom filter values for boards by default instance-wide.
Fixed
An issue has been fixed where dimension fill could fail to populate values when the row limit is reached. This feature now performs as expected.
Fixed
An issue has been fixed where the “raw” timeframe of a dimension_group could be displayed in a 12-hour format instead of the expected 24-hour format. This feature now performs as expected.
Fixed
An issue has been fixed where certain tables were being unnecessarily truncated when they were downloaded to PDF. This feature now performs as expected.
Feature
The Looker API now includes Looker Conversational Analytics endpoints that you can use with applications that embed Looker to create and manage agents, conversations, and messages.
Fixed
An issue has been fixed where dashboard buttons that open links in a new tab could fail to work properly when cookieless embed was enabled. This feature now performs as expected.
Feature
The Preview Features page is now available in the Admin panel for Looker (Google Cloud core). This page lets you enable or disable new features that are currently in preview.
The following preview features are now available in Looker (Google Cloud core):
- Access Content Certification
- Granular Dashboard Sizing
- Internal Dashboard Theming
- Tile Download Default Options
Preview features that are categorized as “Labs” on the Preview Features page of the Admin panel aren’t supported in Looker (Google Cloud core).
Breaking
Project-level local git hooks are no longer supported for security reasons. This change will have no effect on Looker-hosted instances, but it may affect customer-hosted instances depending on your Git setup.
Feature
The Gemini in Looker page in the Admin panel has been redesigned to allow Looker admins to selectively enable Gemini in Looker features. For more information about how to enable the features that are available for each Looker instance type, see the following documentation:
- Looker (Google Cloud core): Administer Gemini on your Looker (Google Cloud core) instance
- Looker: Admin settings – Gemini in Looker
Security Command Center
Feature
AI Protection is generally available (GA) in the Security Command Center Premium tier at the organization level.
For regional availability, see Locations for AI Protection.
Source: Google Cloud Platform
