Google has been working on improving their networking capabilities for a while now, and now they’re discussing the newest piece of it. Google’s new tech is a routing tool called Espresso.
What it does: when you get on the internet, you are connected to it based off a specific point determined by elements such as your IP address. But Google Espresso looks at data and traffic to see which points you should be connected to. It’s sort of like having a pizza delivery guy who constantly tries to figure out the best way to get to your house so you can have your pizza ASAP; if one road doesn’t work well, he’ll try another till he finds the one that does.
What this means: Basically, you can expect better service when using Google applications. But it’s important to remember that while Google is increasing the speed of their services, there are multiple other factors that affect your internet connection and speed – such as your router, internet service provider, etc.
According to Timothy Prickett Morgan’s interview with Google Fellow Amin Vahdat, Espresso has been running for two years and is serving twenty percent of Google’s traffic; the other eighty percent will be moved over in daily increments. So while you may not be getting the benefits of Espresso right away, it will eventually kick in.
If you’d like to know more about Google Espresso, check out these resources we used for this article:
How Google Want’s to Rewire the Internet, by Timothy Prickett Morgan
Google Reveals Espresso, Its Edge Data Center SDN, by Yevgeniy Sverdlik
Espresso makes Google Cloud Faster… by Amin Vahdat & Bikash Koley
